Guy Fishman / Members of Handel and Haydn Society C.P.E. BACH Concerti for Cello

“A musician cannot hope to move the listener unless he himself is moved. He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humour will stimulate a like humour in his listener."

Have there ever been words more germane to the central mission of all musicians than these? Written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, they are found in his Versuch Ober die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen ("Essay on the True Art of Keyboard Playing"), and though they are inscribed in a book seemingly aimed at the craft of playing an instrument, they reveal their author's true purpose to have been the art of making music, and the life-changing force he believed this endeavor to be.

During his time in Berlin he penned some of the most affecting and expressive music of the 18th century, including the three works on this recording. Take the Concerto in A major, for instance. The exuberance of the orchestral opening cannot be mistaken for anything other than pure joy in music-making, and hardly betrays its author's unhappy circumstances. Ample virtuosity evinces a complete understanding of the cello and sits well under the hand but is difficult enough that only a rare cellist dispatches it with a dry forehead. The soloist's use of material originating with the orchestra - and vice versa - hints at the absolute synergy amongst disparate parts that Emanuel must have learned from his only teacher, Johann Sebastian. This feature serves as fodder for an interplay between soloist and ensemble where one begins a thought and the other finishes it. It is found frequently in the Concerto in A minor, at times exciting, as in the third movement, and at others intimate, as in the single-note utterances in the second movement. The first movement is set like a drama, and reminds me of the similarity between music-making and acting, especially when Emanuel's exhortation to move the listener is observed. (Guy Fishman)