C.P.E. Bach: Fantasias

- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was the most famous and successful son of the great Johann Sebastian. He was a protagonist of the Empfindsame Stil, intended to express true and natural feelings, featuring sudden contrasts of mood and emotions.

- This new recording features a selection of Fantasias, Sonatas and Rondos. “It is particularly in the fantasias that the keyboard player, more than any other musician, can practise a declamatory style, passing audaciously from one affect to another … to spontaneously master the feelings of his listeners.” (C.Ph.E. Bach: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, 1753). Also included in this program is the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, its central recitative and broken chords audaciously passing through distant harmonies were certainly an example and inspiration for the son.

- The recording features two different harpsichords and a Daniel Dörr fortepiano.

- Finnish keyboard player Aapo Häkkinen studied in Helsinki and subsequently with Bob van Asperen, Menno van Delft (clavichord), and Stanley Hoogland (fortepiano) at the Amsterdam Conservatory and with Pierre Hantaï in Paris, while also enjoying the generous guidance and encouragement of Gustav Leonhardt. He won second prize and the VRT prize at the Bruges Harpsichord Competition. He was also awarded the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Musikpreis 1997 for his interpretations of Italian music. He developed a successful career as harpsichordist and conductor, and is Artistic Director of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra.

• Bach, C P E: Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, Wq. 119/7 (H103)
• Bach, C P E: Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, Wq. Deest (H.349)
• Bach, C P E: Fantasia for keyboard in D major, Wq. 117/14 (H160)
• Bach, C P E: Fantasia in E flat major, W.deest (H. 348)
• Bach, C P E: Fantasia in G minor, Wq. 117/13 (H225)
• Bach, C P E: Free Fantasia, for keyboard in F sharp minor, H300/Wq67
• Bach, C P E: Keyboard Sonata in F minor, Wq. 63/6 (H75)
• Bach, C P E: Rondo in E Minor, Wq. 66, H. 272
• Bach, J S: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903