CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH Sinfonien Wq 182/2 & 6, 183/2 & 3 / Orgel-Konzert Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Christine Schornsheim

Baroque extravagance or Pre-Romantic audacity?
Like his celebrated keyboard sonatas, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Symphonies are an admirable proof of the decisive role he played in the shaping of the classical style. There has been much speculation on the non-conformity of the "Berlin (or Hamburg) Bach", the most famous of the great Johann Sebastian's descendants: were the sonorities of Empfindsamkeit the final extravagance of the Baroque, or an early foreshadowing of Romanticism? But, above all, this music should be listened to for itself, because it is the work of a disgracefully under-estimated composer of genius.