Johann Joachim Quantz was the most innovative performer and composer for the flute in the eighteenth century. He was also the teacher, composer and flute-maker to Frederick II, ‘The Great’, King of Prussia. Royal concerts were the principal venue for Quantz’s concertos where their constant invention and brilliance were intensified by his specially designed flutes. The A minor Concerto has only recently been retrieved from the Russian National Library in St Petersburg, whilst the G major’s cadenzas have been preserved, fully written-out, providing a valuable direct link to performance practices in Quantz’s time. Poignantly, Frederick himself completed the C minor Concerto after Quantz’s death.

Described in Gramophone as ‘one of the most needed and important recording projects in progress today’, this series has up until now featured the clavichord, the tangent piano, and the fortepiano. It is therefore something of an occasion when Miklós Spányi for his Volume 37 chooses to perform on a harpsichord. In doing so he reminds us of C.P.E. Bach’s own advice to keyboard players to have both a clavichord and a harpsichord in order to play ‘all sorts of things alternating’ (‘allerley Sachen abwechselnd’). But the album – which includes some of the composer’s earliest works – also features one of the very few, if not the only, compositions that Bach specifically dedicated to the harpsichord, namely the Sonata per il cembalo a 2 tastature. In it, Bach makes colorful use of the instrument by specifying various detailed and idiosyncratic harpsichord registrations. Spányi also performs two of the few fugues – in F and A major respectively – that Carl Philipp composed: besides the general shift in fashion away from intricate counterpoint to melodic simplicity, it is possible that he found father Johann Sebastian’s achievements in that particular genre too hard an act to follow.

This new release is the latest installment in Miklos Spanyi’s series of the keyboard music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The works on this volume include some of CPE Bach’s most celebrated works. The six collections “fur Kenner und Liebhaber” were published between 1779 and 1787. Roughly translated as “connaisseurs and amateurs,” the collections were composed for the enjoyment of both the musically trained and untrained. Spanyi has decided to combine works from both collections for this volume, and performs them on the clavichord. The next volume will complete these collections, and will be performed on the tangent piano. Spanyi’s prior installments in this series have been called an “illuminating journey through the keyboard landscape of JS Bach’s best-known son” (BBC Music Magazine) and “one of the most needed and important recording projects in progress today.” (Gramophone)

The 'Württenberg' Sonatas are very demanding, clearly intended for skilful, professional keyboard players. The sonatas have almost symphonic or even operatic dimensions and attitudes; in fact they may almost be called romantic, conjuring up fantastic and colourful landscapes. The first three of the set are here performed on Bach's own favourite instrument, the clavichord, by Miklós Spányi, whose indefatigable work in bringing the keyboard music of C.P.E. bach to a wider audience has impressed both critics and music lovers alike.

Issued between 1779 and 1787, the six collections of sonatas, rondos, and fantasias “fur Kenner und Liebhaber” constitute Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s largest-scale publishing venture. Aimed at ‘Connaisseurs and Amateurs’, the first collection was a retrospective selection of six sonatas but when this became a commercial success Bach expanded and varied the scheme, adding rondos (a recently popular form) for the second and third collection and, in the final three collections, samples of his free fantasies. On the previous two discs in his acclaimed series, Miklós SpAnyi combined pieces from Collection 1 and 2, performing them on the clavichord (Volume 31) and the tangent piano (Volume 32). For the present disc, SpAnyi has chosen to remain with the tangent piano, an early form of the piano with strings that are struck by small wooden slips (‘tangents’). The basic sound of the instrument is reminiscent of the harpsichord, but this can be modified in a number of ways through the use of various devices. In Collection 3, Bach provided variety by alternating previously composed sonatas with newly written rondos and Miklós SpAnyi adds to this by appending an independent set of variations to the collection. Probably intended for amateur keyboard players, the Canzonetta with 6 Variations was composed in 1781, and described by Bach in the catalogue of his works as ‘Canzonetta by the Duchess of Gotha with my 6 variations’.

The BIS Complete Edition of the CPE Bach Keyboard Concertos with this disc reaches Volume 12, and is by now firmly established as a major contribution to the repertoire. These are performances which have received great acclaim, for instance Volume 10 (CD914) which Diapason described with the words: 'Spányi and his orchestra speak the language of Carl Philip as one speaks one's mother tongue, bringing out nuances, voices and contrasts without ever overstating the effects.' the whole series has been greeted as 'fascinating' and 'constantly surprising' (in Répertoire), 'very important' (classicstoday.com), 'splendid' (Fanfare) and being of 'an exceptionally high standard' (Diapason). For this volume, a sonatina and a concerto from the early 1760s have been brought together with a concerto from 1746.

With this disc, Miklós Spányi's survey of the complete keyboard concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, begun in 1995, reaches its conclusion. But over the years it has already been described as 'a unique monument to one of the 18th century's most underrated composers' (Gramophone) as well as 'one of the most important and monumental recording projects of the century so far' (MusicWeb International) and 'an epoch-making achievement... in the history of recorded music' (klassik-heute.de). Together, the 64 works - composed over a period of fifty-five years (1733-88) - form an endlessly fascinating picture of their composer's various choices made in the course of a long career. They also illustrate the development of the concerto genre, and, indeed, of music itself during the mid-eighteenth century - a period of experimentation and great variety. All of these aspects are explored in an admirable fashion in the liner notes to the various discs, written by the C.P.E. Bach scholars Jane R. Stevens and Darrell M. Berg. Throughout the series, Miklós Spányi has performed the solo parts on harpsichord, fortepiano and tangent piano, carefully explaining his choices in his own remarks to each volume, and thereby providing much insight into a crucial chapter in the development of the keyboard instruments. The two double concertos on this final volume frame most of Bach's career, with the F major work for two harpsichords hailing from 1740 and the Concerto in E flat major being the fruit of the composer's final year. The latter work is intriguing in that Bach in his score specified that the solo parts should be performed on a harpsichord and a fortepiano respectively, resulting in some fascinating sound effects. The disc ends with a Sonatina for two harpsichords, composed in the 1760s, and remarkable for the size of its orchestra: the work employs the largest forces ever used by Bach, and forms a suitably resplendent finale to this great recording project.

In these five sonatas from the 1760s, the period prior to C.P.E. Bach's departure from Frederick the Great's court in Berlin, we find some of his most attractive writing, in the opinion of Darrell M. Berg, author of the liner notes to this disc and general editor of the complete edition of the composer's works. The fabulous landscapes and high drama of so many earlier works (such as the Württemberg Sonatas on volumes 16 and 17 of this series) are left behind, as are the lyrical intimacy and simplicity of the so-called 'easy' sonatas. Or rather: these qualities are incorporated in the 'new' style and a certain synthesis is achieved. The result is a style featuring Bach's familiar energy and vivacity but with greater equilibrium, resulting in compositions we might - for want of a better term - call more 'classical'. Miklós Spányi has acquired a reputation as a leading interpreter and firm advocate of this music that stands between the Baroque and the Classical period, and which is less well-known than it deserves partly because of the difficulty of classifying it. He has here chosen to perform it on C.P.E. Bach's own favourite keyboard instrument, the clavichord. Spányi's ground-breaking work in this series, and in the parallel one of the same composer's keyboard concertos, will be familiar to many lovers of early keyboard music. It has been called 'a major contribution to recorded keyboard literature' in American Record Guide, to single out one single disc, Volume 17 of this series was selected as Editor's Choice in Gramophone, and described as 'the answer to clavichord fans' dreams'.

In a series that has been called "very important" (Classics Today.com), "of an exceptional level" (Diapason), "always surprising, and certainly ideal" (Répertoire) and "deeply sympathetic" (International Record Review), Miklòs Spànyi has reached the 13th volume, featuring one concerto and two sonatinas for keyboard and orchestra - a genre which, according to the informative liner notes by C.P.E. Bach scholars Jane R. Stevens and Darrell M. Berg, arose as "a direct effort to provide music for a growing concert-going musical public". As might be expected, these are works of immediate appeal, with those trademarks of their composer: the unceasing spirit of innovation and the highly individual use of rhythm and keys. (The opener on this disc is the Sonatina in F major - which actually starts in d minor: a strategy that increases the major mode's feeling of brightness when it belatedly appears.) For those of you who haven't yet discovered the wonderful world of C. P. E. Bach's keyboard works, this is a good place to start; for those who have, prepare yourself for a generous hour of sheer enjoyment!

Miklós Spányi's latest volume in his series of the Keyboard Concertos of C.P.E. Bach is the 16th of an estimated total of 19, and we are thus reaching the end of a series which according to a reviewer on the German website Klassik Heute has earned 'a rightful place in the history of recorded music as an epoch-making achivement'. On the present disc we are treated to three works which illustrate the various responses of the composer to the changes that occurred in the musical establishment in the mid-18th century. So all is set for another exciting installment in this highly acclaimed series of 'brilliant recordings, that admits to no routine or any degree of tiredness', to quote the website klassik.com.

In the latest volume of his highly regarded series, Miklós Spányi has assembled a varied programme, showing different aspects of C.P.E. Bach and the context in which he was active. Two sets of variations are included, both of them intended for the rapidly growing market created by the increasing number of skilled amateur players. Such sets would typically be based on a popular song - such as 'Ich schlief, da träumte mir' ('I slept, and then I dreamt'), used by a number of Bach's contemporaries - and were often printed in periodical anthologies of music by different composers. In contrast to these more intimate pieces, the Sonata in E flat major and, even more so, the Sinfonia in F major, are examples of the orchestral style of writing that Bach at times allowed to spill over into his keyboard works. The Sinfonia is indeed an arrangement of his own symphony for orchestra, Wq 181. Two other, short pieces, both dated 1760 are included on the disc, one of which, Allegro in C major, was originally intended for use in a 'Spieluhr' (a musical box or clock) - a genre in which both Bach's father, Johann Sebastian, and Handel had written, and for which the young Beethoven would also compose. For a large number of discs in this series, Spányi has chosen to play on a clavichord - an instrument loved by Bach. Volume 17 is a case in point: selected as an Editor's Choice in Gramophone, the disc was described as 'the answer to clavichord fans' dreams'. For the present programme, however, Spányi has elected to perform on a tangent piano, a variant of the fortepiano with a number of possibilities for adapting the timbre and dynamics. The results are striking especially in the sets of variations, but also in the more 'orchestral' pieces with their rich timbres and dynamic contrasts.