The Complete Keyboard Concertos - Volume 6

Abstract

The Works and their Sources The E minor concerto (H.418/W. 15) which opens this disc is one of the most com¬plicated and most technically demanding of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's concertos and was certainly composed for his own use in public performances. Consequently it remained little known during the 18th century and it survives in very few sources. Like many of his concertos, this one was extensively revised on various occasions though we do not know when. Among the sources the autograph score represents the latest, possibly the final version. Our recording follows this source. A set of parts, lacking the keyboard part, and a single part for the first violin from another set, are preserved in Brussels and these have also been consulted. The parts pre¬sent the work in a somewhat earlier form. A quite different version, presumably an earlier one, survives in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. This early ver¬sion already shows elements in the keyboard part which suggest that Bach had some kind of piano in mind when composing the work: passages of arpeggiated chords in the last movement (remarkably expanded in the later version), demand¬ing raised dampers, and sudden changes between forte and piano in the second movement, which are difficult to realize convincingly on the harpsichord. I am in¬debted to Mr. Elias N. Kulukundis for much invaluable information about this con¬certo and its sources. His suggestions have greatly facilitated my task.