As early as his Concerto in A minor, Wq. 1, which he composed in Leipzig at the age of 19, it was hard for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach to conceal his ability to weave his own styIistic flair into the still nascent genre of the piano concerto. This can be seen not only pianistically in unconventional technical demands (leaps of up to two octaves combined with melodic writing, elaborate embelIishments and other features typical of instrumental works) but also in unexpected extensions of the formal layout and at times abruptly harsh passages.
This tendency can also be heard in the concertos that soon followed, but most strikingly in Wq. 5 and Wq. 8. The validity of his later statement was already proven at an early stage: “I took all the liberties that I needed”. The piano concerto became his most intimate genre, which – free from stultifying convention – from time to time takes on an experimental character (Wq. 15 and Wq. 31).
Michael Rische and the excellent musicians of Berliner Barock Solisten are promoting here three misknown concertos of the most original son of J S. Bach. © Haenssler Classic