The violin-and-keyboard sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach are as wild as his better-known keyboard sonatas and symphonies -- perhaps even wilder, for the composer fools at times between the quite conventional relationship between the two instruments. The four works recorded here have the advantage of being genuine works for violin and piano, not the piano-with-accompanying-and-almost-optional violin configuration that prevailed during much of the era of High Classicism. Bach's conceptions depend on the equality of the instruments' roles, for these works are primary examples of the empfindsamer Stil or sensitive style that had roots in various strains of philosophical thought of the time. Plenty of drama is generated as the musical lines are broken up into irregular little fragments, with each instrument taking the music off into new directions. Examples of intriguing structures are the first movement of the opening Sonata in B flat major, H. 513, with its deceptively conventional opening material that falls apart emotionally as the movement proceeds, and the slow movement of the Sonata in C minor, H. 545 (track 5), in which the piano and the violin lead almost separate existences. Each work has its own profile, and the music in general is a long way distant from the smoothly modulated textures and harmonic simplicity that was taking root in Vienna. The French team of violinist
Amandine Beyer and pianist (not a fortepianist as the English translation of the notes erroneously states)
Edna Stern deserves credit for giving these fascinating works an ambitious, intense recording.
Beyer has the edgy, hyper quality that Baroque musicians who venture forward into the Classical era sometimes evince, but with C.P.E. Bach, hyper works just fine. Sample her flashing Baroque violin, which doesn't quite seem to match the piano used -- yet the performers chose a piano in preference to a clavichord, which was said to be C.P.E. Bach's instrument of choice for domestic-sized music. They are right that it is hard to imagine these pieces with clavichord. With a little adjustment of the ears to the duo's unusual sound, the listener can enjoy exciting performances of some very unusual sonatas.