Five Stars for Norrington’s CPE Bach

[doversoul1]

This is the performance

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z628c

and this is the review.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/07/oae-norrington-review

I’ll give Five Stars to CPE any day but not too sure about tonight’s performance. It was … nice but I listened to Concert Koln afterword to remind myself of the CPE I knew. Still, I suppose it’s a lot to do with what one is used to.

[ed] I have no particular opinions about Roger Norrington. This is purely about this performance.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes a bit understated i felt ... great music but not a five star performance in my ears, needs a virtuoso and full bodied delivery for my taste ... dry and detached not quite the thing

[aeolium]

I enjoyed it a lot. It's very good to hear a whole programme of C P E Bach and something that doesn't happen too often. There are some works that I wish had been on the programme - the D minor Harpsichord Concerto, the D minor Flute Concerto (the last movement of which must have been known by Haydn). I don't think CPE is a master of transition though - quite often a musical idea seems to come to an abrupt stop, before a crashing gear change to something very different. Disconcerting to listen to, and probably intentionally so.

[Bryn]

I enjoyed it a lot. It's very good to hear a whole programme of C P E Bach and something that doesn't happen too often. There are some works that I wish had been on the programme - the D minor Harpsichord Concerto, the D minor Flute Concerto (the last movement of which must have been known by Haydn). I don't think CPE is a master of transition though - quite often a musical idea seems to come to an abrupt stop, before a crashing gear change to something very different. Disconcerting to listen to, and probably intentionally so.

Agreed, yet very often a new movement seems to start off as a straight continuation of the musical material of the end of the one it's following on from. I've not heard the Concerto Köln recording, so can't comment on the relative merits of the performances, but I did very much enjoy last night's transmission (I listened via the HD Sound stream rather than the broadcast, hence the pedantic reference to "transmission" ) .

[doversoul1]

I agree. It was very good to see a concert made up entirely with CPE Bach. It really doesn’t happen very often. I checked the programme twice to make sure I was looking at Performance on 3!! It was just that I tend to think CPE as more a composer at the end of Baroque than at the beginning of the Classical era, and yesterday’s performance, to me, was definitely more classical than Baroque. Someone said (can’t remember who it was) that CPE was a kind of dead end in the development of classical music. It wasn’t a criticism and I thought it was rather an apt description.

It is a good sign that a mainstream orchestra like OAE takes up CPE. Let’s hope we’ll hear a lot more of his works.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Someone said (can’t remember who it was) that CPE was a kind of dead end in the development of classical music.

Far from it. C.P.E.Bach was a pioneer in moving forward to a new style - and incredibly important figure in the history of music. He regarded his father as rather old hat (which of course he was, but the ghost of J.S.B. must have had the last laugh). So music of the period 1750 - 1770 has been pushed aside by the greatness of Haydn and Mozart that was still to come. But without C.P.E. Bach and his contemporaries, the music of the later classical period may not have reached the same heights.

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

But without C.P.E. Bach and his contemporaries, the music of the later classical period may not have reached the same heights.

Sorry, Alpen, but it MIGHT not have reached the same heights, because we agree that it actually DID: it's the remote [im]possibility. It MAY have reached those heights because of CPE [who knows? opinions differ!] It MIGHT have done so without him.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sorry, Alpen, but it MIGHT not have reached the same heights, because we agree that it actually DID: it's the remote [im]possibility. It MAY have reached those heights because of CPE [who knows? opinions differ!] It MIGHT have done so without him.

I wouldn't dispute that, but as I suggested earlier, the 1750s and '60s were a period of important development, with very few "great" works being composed.

(I seem to be the only person not having a lie-in this Saturday morning)