Can anyone recommend me some reading on CPE Bach’s solo keyboard music?

[Mandryka]

I’ve been really impressed this week by the Pröbestucke sonatas (Spanyi v.22), and in the past I’ve enjoyed the Kenner und Liebhaber pieces, and the Prussian Sonatas. There’s so much of his music, I feel as though I need a guide, a vade-mecum.

(Oops - no question mark in title! Sorry.)

[Mal]

My "Oxford Composer Companion" to Bach says CPE produced his own vade mecum, in two volumes, "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" translated W.J. Mitchell, New York, 1949, "which remained influential well into the 19th century, and remains a valuable source on historical performing practice".

[Mandryka]

My "Oxford Composer Companion" to Bach says CPE produced his own vade mecum, in two volumes, "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" translated W.J. Mitchell, New York, 1949, "which remained influential well into the 19th century, and remains a valuable source on historical performing practice".

Ah! Sounds good.

[RichardB]

David Schulenberg's monograph on CPEB is not a very exciting read, but if you're looking for one musicologist's opinion as to which are the more successful pieces and which are more routine it might have its uses.

[Mandryka]

It's too expensive for me, I'm afraid.

[RichardB]

It's too expensive for me, I'm afraid.

That's often the case with academic publications... but you aren't missing very much in this case.

[MickyD]

I guess there must be extensive notes by someone in the BIS CPE Bach series of the solo keyboard music, performed by Miklos Spanyi. I have been waiting for ages for BIS to collect all the discs together in a big box. Same for the complete keyboard concerti.

[RichardB]

I guess there must be extensive notes by someone in the BIS CPE Bach series of the solo keyboard music, performed by Miklos Spanyi. I have been waiting for ages for BIS to collect all the discs together in a big box. Same for the complete keyboard concerti.

Has either of those series actually been completed yet? I lost track of them at some point.

[Mandryka]

I guess there must be extensive notes by someone in the BIS CPE Bach series of the solo keyboard music, performed by Miklos Spanyi. I have been waiting for ages for BIS to collect all the discs together in a big box. Same for the complete keyboard concerti.

Yes, here's the one from v22, which I've been exploring. The performer's remarks there are quite inspiring! Just looking over it again now has made me think that I must make the effort to see if there's a recording of the Sonatine Nuove. v30 I think.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/05/000010750.pdf

[Mandryka]

And the performer's remarks for v30 are also quite inspiring (listening now to the bebung on the abschied rondo!)

Maybe that's the thing to do, just collect together the booklets from Spanyi's series, which all seem to be on qobuz.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/63/000079436.pdf

[Pulcinella]

This is likely to be too expensive for you too, but perhaps there is a friendly university library nearby that might have a copy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Keyboard-Music-Bach-Philip-Barford/dp/0807900729

Keyboard Music of C.P.E.Bach
Hardcover – 1 June 1966
by Philip Barford (Author)

Fuller title and a bit cheaper at .com:

https://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Music-C-P-Bach-Considered/dp/0214156516

The Keyboard Music of C.P.E. Bach: Considered in Relation to his Musical Aesthetic and the Rise of the Sonata Principle Hardcover – Import, January 1, 1965
by Philip Barford: (Author)

!!!!!! MUCH CHEAPER AT ABE BOOKS !!!!!!

Used - Hardcover
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https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/barford-philip-bach-c-p-e-%B0-music-%B0/

[MickyD]

And the performer's remarks for v30 are also quite inspiring (listening now to the bebung on the abschied rondo!)

Maybe that's the thing to do, just collect together the booklets from Spanyi's series, which all seem to be on qobuz.


https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/63/000079436.pdf

Has either of those series actually been completed yet? I lost track of them at some point.

I believe the concerti have been completed, 20 discs in all. But the solo keyboard works still remain to be finished. I've bugged Bis a couple of times to ask if they'll box them all up at some point, but they said they hadn't decided yet.

[RichardB]

I believe the concerti have been completed, 20 discs in all. But the solo keyboard works still remain to be finished.

Thanks. I have a few of both series, but I'm not so keen on the instruments Spányi chooses - the tangent piano in the concertos is nice enough but I would prefer to have a bit more variety, and the clavichord in the solo music seems a bit ungratefully recorded. For me the solo music comes down to the "Prussian" and "Württemberg" sets of sonatas, the Concerto for solo harpsichord, the "Kenner und Liebhaber" pieces and the character pieces with Couperin-like titles. The rest is a bit of a blur, but that's probably the result of unfamiliarity - the two sonata sets and the Concerto were recorded by Bob van Asperen, one of my favourite players, many years ago.

[ahinton]

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68381/2

[Mandryka]

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/d...c=D_CDA68381/2

I have this and I think it’s rather nice - I’ve just not given it enough attention yet to say anything more than register a generally positive feeling!