Sonatas

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's works for violin and harpsichord obbligato pervade his entire compositional oeuvre. The earliest works, like the Sonata in D minor still numbered BWV 1036, date back to the years of study with his father, yet show already a remarkable creative will of his own. The latest work, the fantasia 'C. P. E. Bachs Empfindungen' in F flat minor of 1787 is characterized by the composer's highly expressive late style. The new two-volume edition of Wiener Urtext Edition contains C. P. E. Bach's complete works for harpsichord (piano) obbligato and violin. Vol. 1 contains not only the sonatas Wq 71–74 and BWV 1036 but also the arrangements of the trios Wq 143–145 for violin and harpsichord, most of which are included in C. P. E. Bach's autographs, as well as a – previously ignored – early version of Wq 71 which, like BWV 1036, grants a rare insight into the early works of the composer. Vol. 2 contains the four major sonatas of 1763 which already fascinated Johannes Brahms. Brahms not only played them in concert, together with Joseph Hellmesberger, but also published two of these sonatas in 1864. This volume concludes with the two late works 'Arioso' and 'Fantasie' of 1781 and 1787 respectively. With these works, C. P. E. Bach bridged the gap between the late Baroque sonatas of his father and the early classical 'Klaviersonate mit begleitender Violine' [Piano Sonata with Accompanying Violin].