Composer of the Week: CPE Bach

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: CPE Bach (1714-1788): A Very Modern Composer

A Very Modern Composer

CPE Bach (1714-1788)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, CPE Bach (1714-1788), A Very Modern Composer

Donald Macleod explores contemporary angles on CPE Bach's life and music.

Donald Macleod explores contemporary angles on CPE Bach's life and music as well as his life at court in Berlin.

This week we look at CPE Bach's music and reputation in the light of the sensational rediscovery of much his archive in 1999. Throughout the week we'll hear recent recordings of this 'new' music. In this episode, Donald Macleod explores contemporary angles within CPE Bach's life and music, as well as his life at court in Berlin.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was many things in his lifetime: composer, virtuoso harpsichord player and improviser extraordinaire, author, businessman – publishing his own music – biographer – of his father and other members of his family, and teacher. As the growing amateur tradition of music making among the middle classes required pieces that were playable domestically, Bach was quick to appreciate the potential for him to fill the gap.

Publishing rivalled composition and performance for importance in his professional life. Much like musicians using crowd-funding sites today, Bach introduced a subscription system for his fans, in which each work's printing and distribution was financed by prepublication sales. Haydn, Mozart, Weber and Beethoven all studied Bach's Essay on keyboard playing attentively. It's a practical guide for performers, with chapters on ornamentation, performance and improvisation.

Solfeggio in C Minor, Wq 117 No 2
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano

Free Fantasie in F sharp minor, Wq 67
Andreas Staier, fortepiano

Licht der Welt, von Gott gegeben, H 811 (Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe) 
Jan Kobow, tenor
Himlische Cantorey
Les Amis de Philippe
Ludger Rémy, conductor

Rondo II in D Minor, Wq 61 No 4
Christine Schornsheim, clavichord

Flute Sonata in A minor, Wq 132
Emanuel Pahud

Solfeggio in C Minor				
Eugen Cicero, piano

Produced by Iain Chambers for BBC Wales

Composer of the Week: CPE Bach (1714-1788)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod tells the story of the discovery of a lost archive of CPE Bach manuscripts.

Donald Macleod looks at CPE Bach's music and reputation in the light of the sensational rediscovery of a lost archive of manuscripts in 1999.

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