Audio CD review:
C.P.E. Bach, Trevor, English Concert Pinnock - Concertos

C.P.E. Bach, Trevor, English Concert Pinnock - Concertos

Band: C.P.E. Bach, Trevor, English Concert Pinnock Title: Concertos Rating: Release Date: 05 April, 1994 Media: Audio CD Tracks:

Customer Review The first ever recording by Pinnock/English Concert (1975) This is, of course, wonderfully vibrant music, recorded in analogue technology but digitally re-mastered to an acceptable standard, although there is a certain amount of noise from the old tapes and a kind of muffled "pre-echo" which can be heard plainly between tracks. Two comparatively early harpsichord concertos by Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emanuel and a composite one put together by the eight year old child prodigy Mozart from piano movements by Bach's youngest son Johann Christian make an interesting offering from the English independent label CRD. Apart from the unusual music itself, which clearly demonstrates the links between Bach's sons (and even Mozart) on the one hand and the Baroque with its figurehead Johann Sebastian Bach on the other hand, perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this recording is the fact that, if I am correctly informed, it is the first ever recording made by the English Concert (and first published in 1976). Here we hear an obviously excited Trevor Pinnock with some absolutely brilliant harpsichord playing (and there is a black-and-white picture of him from the mid-70's in the booklet - how time flies!), but there are also some star names in the distribution list: John Holloway, Monica Huggett, Nicholas McGegan, Anthony Pleeth, Simon Standage. The recording as a whole breathes the freshness of the first enthusiasm for period instruments in those pioneer years, I suppose one could speak of "first love". A comparison with Pinnock's Handel recordings of only seven to eight years later reveal that the English Concert made enormous strides forward in its playing technique, but that the original freshness and verve gave way to a certain nobility of expression that sounds, to my ears at any rate, rather snobbish. The Bach's Sons CD is, therefore, a historical document of period performance practice, and purchasers will excuse its having only 49 minutes of music. . You can see a complete list of all C.P.E. Bach, Trevor, English Concert Pinnock discography, or go back to the C.P.E. Bach, Trevor, English Concert Pinnock tabs