The Württemberg Sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach were harpsichord pieces, composed in 1742 and 1743. As Iranian-born harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani points out in his booklet notes (which are elegant, enthusiastic, informative, personal, and altogether more appealing than almost any comparable example), this is a time thought of as part of the High Baroque, but J.S. Bach's eldest son was already definitively going his own way. Occasionally there is a nod to his father's style: the finale of the Sonata in B minor, H. 36, ...
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The Württemberg Sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach were harpsichord pieces, composed in 1742 and 1743. As Iranian-born harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani points out in his booklet notes (which are elegant, enthusiastic, informative, personal, and altogether more appealing than almost any comparable example), this is a time thought of as part of the High Baroque, but J.S. Bach's eldest son was already definitively going his own way. Occasionally there is a nod to his father's style: the finale of the Sonata in B minor, H. 36, is essentially a two-part Invention like those of the elder Bach, and many movements begin with squarish, quasi-orchestral Baroque figures. But C.P.E. delights in demolishing these with what would become his trademark abrupt leaps, and Esfahani is wonderfully alert to the humor in these. The slow movements, with dotted figures being stretched out to chromatic extremes, are especially reminiscent of Haydn, who pointed to C.P.E. Bach as an influence in the first part of his career even...
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