musica Dei donum
CD reviews
German keyboard concertos
[I] "The Age of Extremes - W.F. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, G. Benda"
Francesco Corti, harpsichord
Il Pomo d'Oro
Dir: Francesco Corti
rec: Jan 22 - 25, 2024, Padua, Sala della Carità
Arcana - A573 (© 2025) (77'18")
Liner-notes: E/F/IT
Cover & track-list
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Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788):
Les Folies d'Espagnes (Wq 118,9 / H 263);
Sonatina in C (Wq 103 / H 457) (andante);
Wilhelm Friedemann BACH (1714-1784):
Concerto for harpsichord and strings in F (F 41; BR-WFB C 9);
Sinfonia in d minor (F 65 / BR-WFB C 7);
Georg Anton BENDA (1722-1795):
Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra in f minor;
Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra in b minor
Daniela Lieb, Francesca Torri, transverse flutes;
Andrea Bressan, bassoon;
Zefira Valova, Nicholas Robinson, Valentina Mattiussi, Ilaria Marvilly, Lucia Giraudo, Laura Andriani, Luca Ranzato, violin;
Jesus Merino, Archimede De Martini, viola;
Ludovico Minasi, Cristina Vidoni, cello;
Jonathan Álvarez, double bass
[II] Johann Nikolaus FORKEL (1749 - 1818): "Four Piano Concertos"
Tobias Koch, fortepiano
Kölner Akademie
Dir: Michael Alexander Willens
rec: May 2 - 6, 2022, Cologne, Deutschlandfunk (Kammermusiksaal)
CPO - 555 563-2 (© 2024) (1.25'25")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Concerto for pianoforte and orchestra in C;
Concerto for pianoforte and orchestra in G;
Concerto for pianoforte and orchestra in A;
Concerto for pianoforte and orchestra in B flat
Bárbara Ferraz Balboa, Gudrun Knop, transverse flute;
Mathieu Loux, Mario Topper, oboe;
Martin Bewersdorff, Giulia Zannin, clarinet;
Yoichi Murakami, Christopher Weddle, horn;
Marc Deml, Sebastian Kuhn, trumpet;
Bruno van Esseveld, Lalita Svete, Panayotis Haralambidis, Lucas Bernardo, Raquel Marìn, Alexandra Lopez, Emese Jesenöi, Shuyua Cheng,
Katarina Todorovic, Antonio de Sarlo, violin;
Rafael Roth, Iván Sáez Schwartz, viola;
Nicola Paoli, Felix Zimmermann, cello;
Thomas Falke, double bass;
Rafael Klepsch, timpani
Johann Sebastian Bach was the first composer in history to set free the harpsichord from its role as a basso continuo instrument in an ensemble. In his fifth Brandenburg Concerto he gave it the role of prima donna, with a brilliant part to boot. Later he arranged concertos for various instruments as harpsichord concertos, which he performed in Leipzig at Zimmermann's Kaffeehaus. It seems very likely that he himself played the solo parts, together with his sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel and some of his pupils in the concertos for two to four harpsichords.
His sons also wrote keyboard concertos; especially CPE Bach has left a large corpus of such works, which he may have written for his own use. It is not very likely that he performed them at the court of his employer Frederick the Great, as he did not like the music of his harpsichordist very much, but rather in private concerts in Berlin. There the concertos of some of his colleagues, who were also at Frederick's service, may have been played as well. Recently I reviewed a disc with sonatas by Christoph Schaffrath, who was a very prolific composer of keyboard concertos: the number of such works is estimated at 72.
The first disc to be reviewed here focuses on CPE Bach, his brother Wilhelm Friedemann, and his colleague Georg Benda. The latter joined his brother Franz in Frederick's court orchestra as a violinist, but in 1750 he left Berlin to become Kapellmeister to Duke Frederick III of Saxe-Gotha. Here he composed sacred cantatas, instrumental music and was one of the earliest contributors to two new genres, the Singspiel and the melodrama. He was an intellectual who spoke several languages and was strongly interested in politics and philosophy.
Benda has become best-known for his melodramas Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea. His instrumental works have received less interest. According to the work-list in New Grove he composed nine harpsichord concertos, one of which is lost; a tenth concerto is marked as not authentic. Peter Wollny, in his liner-notes, assumes that the concertos recorded by Francesco Corti date from the 1740s, when Benda was still in Berlin. They show a strong stylistic similarity with the concertos of CPE Bach, whom he greatly admired. That makes it easy to understand why the Concerto in f minor is attributed to the latter in one copy. The outer movements are written in a kind of nervous, restless style which is a feature of many fast movements of what is known as the Sturm und Drang. The slow movements are expressive and have improvisatory features. Corti, in his notes in the booklet, refers to another style of that time, the Epfindsamkeit. This is different from the Sturm und Drang, but the two cannot be fully separated and often manifest themselves simultaneously.
The title of the disc is "The Age of Extremes". Nowhere in the booket this is explained. The title of Peter Wollny's liner-notes seems more appropriate: "The struggle for uniqueness". One could also characterize the style of the generation of the Bach sons as an "age of diversity". When the musical aesthetics are in a process of change, one often observes that composers move forth and back between new and old, and sometimes mix both in their oeuvre or even in one work. In the programme that Corti recorded, Wilhelm Friedemann is the perfect example of this. In his oeuvre one finds the features of the tradition in which he was educated by his father. His sacred cantatas show a strong similarity with those of the latter. In his keyboard music one finds the traces of the contrapuntal style for which Johann Sebastian was famous. And in the present programme the Sinfonia in d minor is a specimen of his command of what he had learnt. It consists of a solemn slow movement and a fugue. This piece dates from early in his career and there are good reasons to believe that it was part of the repertoire used as instrumental graduals at the Catholic Hofkirche in Dresden.
All the sons of Johann Sebastian were excellent keyboard players and have written keyboard concertos. Wilhelm Friedemann left five harpsichord concertos and one for two harpsichords. Wollny mentions several influences in the Concerto in D recorded here. Features of the Neapolitan style can be attributed to Johann Adolf Hasse, which are mixed with elements of the style of the latter's colleague at the Dresden court, Jan Dismas Zelenka. At the same time the contrapuntal tradition makes itself felt in the use of canons. Wilhelm Friedemann's keyboard music is often unpredictable, and that goes for this concerto as well, especially in the solo part.
Whereas Bach's eldest son gives the impression of not exactly knowing where to go in the stylistic landscape of his time (although one can also see it as the combination of what is best from the various styles), CPE Bach made his mark in music history with a style that is recognizable and made him a highly influential figure, which inspired a classical composer like Beethoven. However, in his oeuvre we find different styles as well. In particular the keyboard pieces he intended for amateurs (Liebhaber), have a character that is less personal and makes them more accessible to the public at large. Wollny mentions that it is not quite clear why Bach composed the 12 Variationes auf die Folie d'Espagne; that was in 1778, "at a time when the old, widely used melody from the middle of the 17th century could really not inspire anyone." (However, as late as 1815 Antonio Salieri composed 26 variations on La Folia di Spagna for orchestra.) "Perhaps the idea originated from a competition among friends and the associated challenge of eliciting new effects from even a stale harmonic sequence with humour and ingenuity".
As said, CPE Bach kept an eye on the market of Liebhaber. The genre of the sonatina for keyboard and orchestra, which was of his own invention, may have been inspired by their interests as well. Wollny defines it as a form between concerto and suite; one could also connect it to the classical divertimento. Whereas Bach kept distance to the galant idiom which was so popular at his time, and which was embraced by his youngest brother Johann Christian, the sonatinas may be the closest to this style in his entire oeuvre. Here we get only a section for solo keyboard from the Sonatina in C.
Francesco Corti is known as a very energetic and technically brilliant player. He is entirely in his element here; the music fits him perfectly. In his own liner-notes he makes clear that the interpreter needs to take some freedom, especially in the field of ornamentation, and the addition of cadenzas, to do justice to this repertoire. This is in line with what composers expected from professional interpreters. Copies where such things are written out, are very instructive. Both CPE and Friedemann Bach have left such pieces, and Corti uses in his recording a fully ornamented version of the second movement of Benda's Concerto in b minor from a manuscript preserved in Berlin. The rest is of his own making, and the results are quite impressive. He regularly works together with Il Pomo d'Oro, and that is important as a feature of these concertos is the often quick succession of solos and tutti. That has been realized perfectly.
The second disc brings us to a composer of a later generation, who is largely unknown. That is to say: nearly every music lover knows Johann Nikolaus Forkel, but then only as the first biographer of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is telling that New Grove defines him as "German music historian, theorist and bibliographer". He shares the fate of others who are first and foremost known for their treatises, such as Johann Joseph Fux, Johann Joachim Quantz, Johann Mattheson and Leopold Mozart: their compositional oeuvre is largely overlooked and ignored. The four I just mentioned are represented on disc, and in recent times they have received increasing interest. Whether that will also be the case with Johann Nikolaus Forkel is hard to say.
There is a line between Forkel and the above-mentioned Mattheson: Forkel taught himself music theory through the study of Mattheson's Der vollkommene Capellmeister. His first experiences in music came during his time as a choirboy at the Johanneum in Lüneburg. About 1767 he moved to Schwerin, where he may have been a pupil of Johann Wilhelm Hertel. In 1769 he started studying law in Göttingen, where he also took an interest in philosophy, philology and mathematics. He also started to play a role in music, as he became organist at the University church. His musical activities extended: in 1779 he was appointed Musik-Direktor. As such he directed the Collegium Musicum and organized the academic winter concert series (until 1815).
In the 1780s and 90s he published encyclopedic and historical works. The work which brought him fame was the monography on Bach, which appeared in 1802. This has completely overshadowed his compositional oeuvre. In the article on Forkel in New Grove we only find a discussion of his writings under the header "Works". A description of his compositions takes just three lines. It is useful to quote them here, as it may partly explain the lack of interest in this part of his work: "Forkel's own compositions were judged 'dry' in his own time and are largely forgotten today. In Göttingen he published two sets of sonatas for keyboard (1778, 1779), a set of sonatas for keyboard, violin and cello (1783), and keyboard variations on God Save the King (1791). Other pieces were published in Augsburg and London; manuscripts of additional vocal, instrumental and keyboard works (especially keyboard concertos) survive, mainly in Berlin (D-Bsb)." No work-list is included, although Forkel's oeuvre has been catalogued (FoWV),
His oeuvre is considerable in size: between 1769 and 1813 he composed more than one hundred works, including an oratorio, six cantatas, 50 songs, 22 keyboard concertos and a symphony. Forkel has been associated with styles of the past, but he seems to have had an open mind with regard to the music of his own time. The surviving programmes of the winter concert series indicate that the music of Haydn was frequently played, second to Georg Benda. Of the 22 keyboard concertos listed in the inventory of his estate, twelve have been preserved. It shows that the genre of the keyboard concerto was very popular in the second half of the 18th century. The four concertos that Tobias Koch recorded, all date from the late years of Forkels' career, after 1800.
Whereas in earlier concertos both harpsichord and fortepiano are mentioned, from 1789 on Forkel mentioned the fortepiano, first as one of the options, later as the only one. All concertos, except the very first, are for an orchestra of strings with woodwind instruments. The scoring of the four concertos on this disc is not specified, but the Concerto in C includes parts for brass and timpani. It is also the most dramatic concerto.
Two of the concertos open with a slow introduction, the Concerto in G with an adagio, the Concerto in A with an andante. Thematically there is close connection between the solo sections and the ritornellos. Each movement ends with a cadenza. The first movements are as long as the second and third together. What is especially notable is that each slow movement closes with a solo episode which attacca leads to the closing movement which is opened by the fortepiano. The slow movements have clear improvisatory traces. The last movements have the form of a rondo.
Tobias Schwinger, in his liner-notes, observes: 'Forkel's keyboard concertos skilfully amalgamate the North German keyboard style in the solo part with the formal richness of the modern sonata form evolving in Southern Germany, sensitively tuned to the variable tonal potential of the modern pianoforte".
Having heard these concertos for the first time, I have not encountered much that struck me as special. That should not be interpreted as dismissive: not all music can be special. Not many composers can write so many concertos which are all special. I have not been bored at all; I found them good enough to enjoy them. I have to add that this is also due to the performance, Tobias Koch is a specialist on historical fortepianos, and he knows how to make the most of the music he plays. He certainly does that: his performance is differentiated, and he uses all the tools a performer was expected to have to bring the music to life, with the help of an appropriate instrument (a copy of a fortepiano by Anton Walter) and the excellent Kölner Akademie under the engaging direction of Michael Alexander Willens.
To the sceptics who like keyboard music of the classical era: give this disc a chance.
Johan van Veen (© 2026)
Relevant links:
Francesco Corti
Tobias Koch
Il Pomo d'Oro
Kölner Akademie