CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH The Keyboard Concertos Wq 43, 1-6 Andreas Staier, Freiburger Barockorchester

C.P.E. Bach, ‘the serious humorist’
The Sei concerti per il cembalo concertato were the outcome of a period of intensive work between 1770 and 1772, shortly after Carl Philipp Emanuel arrived in Hamburg. Introducing one of his most exciting recording ventures, Andreas Staier explains the incredible diversity in unity of these works ‘whose arrangement is not linear, but concentric. . . . One has the impression that Bach wanted to set a series of musical riddles which constantly force the audience to take a critical distance from its own listening.’ And the result is quite simply fascinating!

Harpsichord, copy after Hieronymus Albrecht Hass, Hamburg 1734.
Built by Anthony Sidey and Frédéric Bal, Paris 2004