Sonatas, Rondos and Fantasias for Connoisseurs and Music Lovers
Product Description A 6-CD box set of the last published solo keyboard works of CPE Bach. Over 4 1/2 hours of music on 71 tracks - 37 sonatas, rondos or fantasias. Recorded by Vivace Records in March 2018 at Bard College in New York. Review A Pianist s Final Message: Overlooked Works by a Son of Bach When he died in February, Peter Serkin was putting the final edits on his recording of a trove of pieces by C.P.E. Bach. Peter Serkin had a lifelong fascination with the piano works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Perhaps he saw in him a kindred spirit. Like Mr. Serkin, whose father was the great pianist Rudolf Serkin, C.P.E. was the son of a famous musician: Johann Sebastian Bach. Mr. Serkin especially loved the six books of sonatas, rondos and fantasias 37 pieces in all that Emanuel Bach, as he was often known, collected and published for Kenner und Liebhaber ( Connoisseurs and Amateurs ), as the volumes were titled. That these pieces were so little known baffled Mr. Serkin. During the 18th century, if you mentioned Bach, most people assumed you were referring to Emanuel (1714-88), whose renown in that period eclipsed that of his father (1685-1750). The younger Bach was especially known for his elegant, inventive keyboard works, which include some 150 sonatas. While occasionally Mr. Serkin would perform Emanuel Bach s works in recital, he mostly played them for himself and recorded some pieces on his private label, which used inexpensive equipment and which he flippantly called Lousy Sound Discs. But over eight days in March 2018, Mr. Serkin sat down and recorded the complete Kenner und Liebhaber, nearly five hours of music. Newly released by Vivace Records, it was his final recording project before he died in February, at 72, of pancreatic cancer. The sessions came during a period when Mr. Serkin thought or dared to hope that his cancer was in remission. He had endured a grueling year of treatments and surgery, but had come through, felt better, and started performing again. Within a year, though, his cancer returned. In a recent interview, Marty Krystall, a friend of Mr. Serkin and Vivace s founder, said that even as Mr. Serkin s health deteriorated, he remained immersed in the intricate editing of these Bach discs, right into the final week of his life. Peter was always a workaholic, Mr. Krystall said. I never saw anybody with that kind of stamina. I was hooked by the very first track of the first disc: the Prestissimo movement of Sonata I in C (Book One). Mr. Serkin plays with pristine clarity, but not overly so. Some passages are rich with milky colorings. And there are hurtling, jagged moments when Mr. Serkin has the music sounding almost improvised. Day after day during the recording sessions, he did take after take, hour after hour. It was Mr. Krystall who finally starting insisting on regular breaks. Death hovered over the sessions in more ways than one. The day before Mr. Serkin began work, his good friend Buell Neidlinger, a bassist and cellist who played with both jazz giants and classical artists, died at 82 of a heart attack. A mentor to Mr. Serkin, he was to have taken part in the recording project, offering regular feedback. Peter was in tears, Mr. Krystall said. Just beside himself. The album is dedicated to Mr. Neidlinger. The day before he died, Peter sent Marty a mailing list of his friends to send copies to with a note - In affectionate friendship and with love - Peter. --Anthony Tommasini - New York Times
Peter Serkin  (Artist, Conductor, Orchestra, Performer),     C.P.E. Bach  (Composer)    Format: Audio CD
{"Package Dimensions": "6.06 x 5.39 x 0.71 inches; 5.93 Ounces", "Manufacturer": "Vivace Records", "Date First Available": "February 18, 2020", "Label": "Vivace Records", "Number of discs": "6"}