The Complete Keyboard Concertos - Volume 2

Abstract

Performer's Notes It is never a simple task to realize a complete edition, especially not if it is of works of an early composer. In this series we present all the undoubtedly authentic works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach for solo keyboard instrument and accompanying ensemble: 52 concertos and 12 sonatinas. As this is the first attempt in tie history of recorded music to realize a complete edition of these marvellous work; _ until now even single recordings of the concertos have been rarities — and because our aim is to give a general view on the possibilities of performing these Works, our recordings have been based on intensive research into the existing sources of the pieces as well as of authentic performance practice. We perform exclusively from original sources and on instruments which represent, if not the only possibility, at least one of the possibilities from the very large 'authentic' instrumentariim. Liner notes about the works are written by outstanding musicologists belonging to the editorial team of the new Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Edition, edited at he Univ¬ersity of Maryland in the USA. The most complicated problem is caused by the numerous different versions of the concertos. As has been pointed out in the liner notes to the first disc in this series, written by the General Editor of the C.P.E. Bach Edition, Rachel Vade, the compositional process of Bach was rarely finished after the first completion of the score: he continued correcting, re-writing and emblemishing his own woks often right until his latest years, probably searching for more and more perfection and for a more precise notation of the current (and Bach's own) performing practice. From the various versions we have striven to choose and perform the version poss¬ibly closest to the composer's final intentions.