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Track(s) taken from CDA67995

Sonata in A minor, H30 Wq49/1

composer
1742/3, published in 1744; No 1 of Württemberg Sonatas, Wq49

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: January 2013
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Tim Oldham
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: January 2014
Total duration: 11 minutes 28 seconds

Cover artwork: Reclining male nude supported on left arm, looking upwards by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779)
Courtesy of the Martin von Wagner Museum, University of Würzburg
 

Reviews

‘The playing here is miles away from the clangorous, congested sound once so typical of harpsichord recitals, denounced by Sir Thomas Beecham as like listening to ‘copulating skeletons’ … hopefully, we will get more new recordings from Esfahani. I’d love to hear him in some of Emanuel’s many keyboard concertos’ (The Mail on Sunday)» More

‘The elusive fusion of thematic intricacy, 'Baroque' rhetoric and 'proto-Classical' Sturm und Drang offered by the instrument are caught perfectly by Esfahani's supple touch and disarming sense of rhetorical pacing’ (Gramophone)

‘I spent most of the year procrastinating, unable to stop listening and start writing an article on CPE Bach. Perhaps I was enjoying the process too much, or maybe I wasn't able to wrap my mind around the complexities of the composer's music. Mahan Esfahani's traversal of the 'Württemberg' Sonatas was one of the delights of the composer's anniversary year, fully embodying the enormous range and subtlety of Bach's expressive language, his playfulness, his tenderness and his manifold idiosyncrasies’ (Gramophone)

‘Esfahani's first solo disc provides a particularly welcome introduction onto the world stage for an artist matching, in 'expression', CPE Bach himself’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

‘Esfahani's debut solo recording is of music that, appropriately enough, boldly breaks rank in pursuit of new ideals. C. P. E. Bach’s six keyboard sonatas … are models of the unconventional, exploratory in many respects, and exemplars of the empfindsamer Stil that gave voice to the expressive concerns of a number of European composers in the mid-eighteenth century … Bach’s guiding interest in the artistic sensibilities that produced such movements as Sturm und Drang is clearly evident in music of frequently changing mood and affekt, and it is this sense of the unsettled, of not quite knowing what’s being aimed for or where the music is heading, that makes his music at once so interesting and so difficult to interpret well … The many sudden dynamic changes in the ‘Württemberg Sonatas’ Esfahani has to achieve on the harpsichord through changes of manual or by adding or subtracting registers, and the sureness with which he does it, especially mid-phrase and at speed, with barely a breath between them, is impressive … The ‘Württemberg Sonatas’ … need a virtuoso interpreter not only to bring off the more showy aspects of the writing—which Esfahani does with strong-fingered assurance—but also to make sense of the inherent strangeness of other parts of the music. The opening movement of No. 6 is an operatic scena in all but name, a recitative keenly characterized by tonal contrast as well as by-phrases that peter out with little real continuity or resolution. In lesser hands the movement would fall to bits, but Esfahani makes coherence out of apparent incoherence, manages to get the music to hang together and establishes dramatic momentum, displaying an authoritative understanding of Bach’s rhetoric … As for his playing, in the best sense it is anything but unpredictable: sure-minded and vividly realized, it holds the attention with ease and is a pleasure to hear. This is an excellent recording and it can be thoroughly recommended’ (International Record Review)» More

‘In this winning performance by the young American-Iranian harpsichordist, one is taken aback by the avant-garde effects and abrupt changes of tempo and mood. The sound of his instrument—a reproduction based on models by the Berlin court harpsichord-maker Michael Mietke (d 1719)—enjoys a wide-ranging spectrum of timbres in Esfahani’s dexterous hands, but it is the verve of his allegros and the affecting pathos of his slow movements that mark him out as a special interpreter of this fascinating composer’s music in his tercentenary year’ (The Sunday Times)» More

‘One of the first releases of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach year revealed an emerging superstar in the Iranian-American harpsichordist’ (The Sunday Times | 100 Best Records of the Year)

‘This set of the Württemberg Sonatas of 1744, has a piquant quality; the timbres of Esfahani's harpsichord range from tangy to feathery as he responds to the music's rhythmic vibrancy and its juxtaposition of humor and drama, in which one can hear the keen influence on Haydn’ (Listen, USA)

«Technique extraordinairement réactive, sens inné du son, sensibilité merveilleusement communicative : un tel rayonnement est chose rare … dans sa notice, Esfahani se livre à une analyse des mouvements extrêmement argumentée, qui témoigne d’une maturité saisissante. On a rarement entendu un Bach aussi près du texte et pourtant si libre, sidérant d’aisance dans les pages brillantes et débordant de tendresse dans les adagios.

L'Adagio non molto de la Sonate en si mineur résume le propos : la mélancolie tente de s'étourdir dans une feinte agitation, les silhouettes de Fiordiligi ou de la Comtesse se dessinent sous nos yeux. L’instrument (d’après Mietke) est particulièrement intéressant. Il combine les traditionnelles vertus de la facture allemande (timbre luthé, aigu merveilleusement vocal) et un registre médium d'une richesse expressive dont Esfahani joue en expert» (Diapason, France)» More

PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE
With the first sonata in the collection, the Sonata in A minor, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach makes the most combative statement possible to assert his new musical language. The opening melody of the first movement could just as well be a brash violin solo by Vivaldi, so fresh and piquant is its flavour. So ambitious is its scope that in fewer than three bars the soprano voice twice spans the range of an eleventh. In true Sturm und Drang fashion, mood swings define the basic logic of the movement, as fiery magic is juxtaposed with moments of almost saccharine sweetness. Immediately before a recapitulation of the principal theme, Bach uses a melodic fragment based on a rising arpeggio accompanied by increasing dissonance in the left hand, thus creating the impression of a rising crescendo in a manner maximizing the harpsichord’s properties. The following Andante could almost be a transcription from a chamber work, a trio for two treble instruments and an accompanying bass. The spirited third movement makes as revolutionary a statement as the first, and is defined by a sense of animalistic turbulence. The driving pulse of the opening bars is met halfway through the first (repeated) section by a daring descending cascade of semiquavers, which then forms the chief idea of the conclusion of each half. The result is a work of stunning brilliance. Perhaps Emanuel had in mind the pyrotechnics of Domenico Scarlatti’s already famous Essercizi of 1737, which he could easily have ordered from Paris.

from notes by Mahan Esfahani © 2014

Avec la Sonate en la mineur, la première du recueil, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach affirme, de la manière la plus combative qui soit, son nouveau langage musical. La mélodie inaugurale du premier mouvement pourrait être un impétueux solo de violon vivaldien, tant son parfum est frais, mordant. Son ambition est telle qu’en moins de trois mesures, la voix de soprano couvre deux fois l’étendue d’une onzième. Dans le pur style Sturm und Drang, les changements d’atmosphère définissent la logique fondamentale du mouvement, une magie ardente venant se juxtaposer à des moments d’une douceur presque sirupeuse. Juste avant de réexposer le thème principal, Bach utilise un fragment mélodique fondé sur un arpège ascendant escorté d’une dissonance croissante à la main gauche, d’où une impression de crescendo ascendant—une manière de maximiser les propriétés du clavecin. L’Andante suivant pourrait presque être transcrit d’une œuvre de chambre, un trio pour deux instruments de tessiture aiguë et une basse accompagnante. Le fougueux troisième mouvement fait une déclaration aussi révolutionnaire que le premier et se définit par une certaine turbulence animale. À mi-chemin de la première section (répétée), le rythme battant des mesures liminaires rencontre une audacieuse cascade descendante de doubles croches, qui forme ensuite l’idée principale de la conclusion de chacune des moitiés. Le résultat est une œuvre d’un éclat étonnant. Peut-être Emanuel avait-il en tête la pyrotechnie des déjà célèbres Essercizi (1737) de Domenico Scarlatti, qu’il avait pu facilement commander à Paris.

extrait des notes rédigées par Mahan Esfahani © 2014
Français: Hypérion

Mit der ersten Sonate der Sammlung, der Sonate in a-Moll, vollzieht Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach eine äußerst kampfbereite Geste, um seine neue musikalische Sprache geltend zu machen. Die Anfangsmelodie des ersten Satzes könnte ebenso ein unverfrorenes Violinsolo von Vivaldi sein, so frisch und pikant ist ihr Aroma. Und der Umfang ist derart anspruchsvoll, dass die Oberstimme in weniger als drei Takten zweimal eine Undezime umspannt. Die Grundlogik des Satzes wird, ganz dem Sturm und Drang entsprechend, von Stimmungswechseln bestimmt, feuriger Zauber Momenten von honigsüßer Freundlichkeit gegenübergestellt. Unmittelbar vor der Reprise des Hauptthemas verwendet Bach ein Melodiefragment, dem ein aufsteigendes Arpeggio zugrunde liegt, das von zunehmender Dissonanz in der linken Hand begleitet wird, wodurch sich der Eindruck eines aufsteigenden Crescendos einstellt, bei dem die Möglichkeiten des Cembalos voll ausgenutzt werden. Das folgende Andante könnte fast eine Bearbeitung eines kammermusikalischen Werks sein, ein Trio für zwei Oberstimmen mit Bassbegleitung. Der lebhafte dritte Satz präsentiert sich ebenso revolutionär wie der erste und besitzt eine gewisse animalistische Turbulenz. Der treibende Puls der Anfangstakte verbindet sich nach der Hälfte des ersten Teils mit einer kühnen, abwärts gerichteten Sechzehntelkaskade, was dann das Hauptmotiv am Ende der beiden Hälften ergibt. Das Resultat ist ein Werk von überwältigender Brillanz. Möglicherweise hatte Emanuel Bach dabei das musikalische Feuerwerk Domenico Scarlattis im Hinterkopf, das sich in den damals bereits berühmten Essercizi von 1737 vollzog, die er ohne Weiteres aus Paris hätte bestellen können.

aus dem Begleittext von Mahan Esfahani © 2014
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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