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Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach managed to
escape from the overpowering
shadow of J. S. Bach early
in his musical development,
although of all Bach's sons,
he treasured his father's
works most and anxiously
collected and preserved the
manuscripts. As a young man,
at the court of Frederick
II, he quickly grew out of
the complaisant trifling of
that musical Anacreon, which
seems to have been accepted
even in the pedantic rules
of the Berlin School.
The pure effect of feelings
should be expressed in
poetry as in music,
suggested Rousseau. Philipp
Emanuel added to this, that
the interpretation of each
work should also spring from
the source of feeling. The
ideals of his time ximed at
a new individualism, an era
of "Sturm und Drang" which
found immediate expression
in the works of several men
of genius, before poetry and
music again began to incline
towards classical
discipline.
Among the most daring
examples of this exciting
time we can count the six
symphonies of Philipp
Emanuel, written in 1773 for
Baron van Swieten in
Hamburg. For a long time
These symphonies were
thought to be String
Quartets Firstly, the
autograph of the four
symphonies which are
recorded here, confirm that
we are dealing with works
which are symphonies in
strings. Possibly the
immense difficulty of the
violin parts made the idea
of a "group setting" seem
impossible.
The improvised character of
these symphonies is also one
of the reasons why the works
of Philipp Emanuel can be
properly valued now for a
long time the inventive
genius of the Mannheim
school, which had aimed at
the development of a new
symphonic form had changed
the focus of means of
expression, which Philipp
Emanuel had just explored
during his stay in Hamburg,
and witch literally points
the way to the mature
expressive style of
Beethoven.
All the symphonies have
three movements, which are
never develope in a cloud
musical form, but
incorporated into a musical
interplay of exciting
effects. We also find sharp
contrasts of musical thought
in each movement which open
out into a free form. Even
if the symphony in B minor
begins with a gentle
Allegretto, after a few bars
this is superseded by new
tonal modulations and firm
chordal bears from the
orchestra, which then
resolve into a complicated
horiziontal line in the
violins.
The symphony in A Major
starts with a three bar
sequence of gentle arpeggios
on the violins, and this is
taken over by a rustic
"unisono" in the tutti
sections. This powerful
impact is followed by a
short "sighing" movement,
which reminds us of the
music of the galante style,
but again the
lightening-like figures on
the violins cut through this
short, melancholy episode.
The continuous change of
mood, which seems barely to
touch on the boundaries of
exprression, is not tied to
the main form, but gets its
continuity from the creative
impulse which lies behind
the work. Bach uses the most
daring modulations in the
first movement of the B
Major symphony, where the
tonal progressions seem to
leap beyend the musical
rules of his time. But also
in this overpowering first
movement, islands of joyful
peace, sighing passages and
short cantabiles appear,
only to be ousted violently
by passages from the
strings.
The impetuously of this
first movement is then
superaded in a "shockingly
new way" by deeply
thoughtful Largo and Adagio
movements, which surprise
the listener with their
completely new tonal milieu.
These slow mouvements seems
to have arrived at the world
of expression found in
Beethoven's String Quartets.
The short bowing stooke of
French origin that Philipp
Emanuel demanded for his
music was led into a new
musical era by the detailed
indication and by minutely
prescribed articulation. The
last movements, until we
come to the cantabile
Allegretto in C Major, are
wild virtuoso pieces, and
join a concluding stretto to
the first two movements,
which are marked by great
sensitivity. A clear sign of
a musical hothead!
The Collegium aureum use old
Italian stringed instruments
with the original shorter
measure for our recording.
The instruments are strang
with gut, and played with
baroque bows. The tuning as
it was usually in Germany in
the 18th century - is half a
tone lower than ear present
ay concert A.
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