C.P.E. Bach: Berlin Symphonies

On this album, the Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori once again dedicates itself to the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Following their recording of the works dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten—often referred to as the “Hamburg Symphonies”—it is now the turn of the compositions created earlier in Berlin. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was appointed chamber musician to Frederick II in 1741 and served him until 1767, when he moved to Hamburg. He was famous for his keyboard sonatas and concertos and composed in a highly individual version of the galant style favored in Berlin. His empfindsamer (hyper-expressive) style is expressed in the eight symphonies he composed during his Berlin years. Five of these works were included in a list of symphonies that were performed in Berlin at royal-sponsored concerts alongside works by Johann Joachim Quantz, Graun, and the King himself. It is therefore not surprising that Bach's first symphony, composed in 1741, is very similar to the overture to Carl Heinrich Graun's first Berlin opera, “Rodelinda”, which was performed in December of the same year. This symphony is scored for strings only, accompanied by a harpsichord that supplements the bass line with improvised harmonies. Bach did not write any further symphonies until 1755. Three works of this kind were then created; four more followed between 1756 and 1762. The composer left Berlin in 1768, but his early symphonies continued to be performed there. The present recordings are the first to present all of these works in their original form without wind parts. (One of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Berlin symphonies, Wq 174, included two horns from the beginning and will be included in part 3 of this series.) As in his later Hamburg symphonies for strings (Wq 182/1–6), Bach's imaginative instrumentation ensures a variety of tonal fullness even without winds by alternating between unison passages for all four voices, quasi-solos for the first violins, and various combinations of two and three voices.