C.P.E. Bach, concerto for flute in D minor

 
Since the time of the German zither player Veit Bach (around 1555), the first known ancestor of Johann Sebastian Bach (and according to him, his great-great-grandfather), the Bach family gave the world so many musicians that the itinerant musicians who roamed the villages at that time were generically called "Bachs", regardless of whether or not they belonged to the illustrious family.

The progeny of Johann Sebastian
This never-ending brood of musicians who emerged generation after generation, reached its maximum expression with the appearance on the scene of Johann Sebastian Bach, in 1685. Curiously enough, after his death, the output of geniuses or talents will extend only a little further. Of the twenty children born from his two marriages, only survived four of the seven he had with his first wife Maria Barbara and five of the thirteen he later had with Anna Magdalena, Of the nine survivors, five will be prominent musicians, but with them, the production of artists will be concluded.

Carl Philipp Emanuel
The second son born from his relationship with Maria Barbara, and who will later be greatly admired by Mozart, is Carl Philipp Emanuel, who at the age of seven was able to sight-read his father's keyboard pieces, no matter how demanding.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714 - 1788)

Born in Weimar in 1714, despite his peculiar genius, Carl Philipp Emanuel will enter the university to study law obeying the strict indications of his father, because in the case that he later decided to devote to music professionally, as a university-trained man he could aspire in the courts to a more dignified treatment than the one dispensed to the servant proper.

Reluctantly with Frederick 
And so, in 1740 we find him, though not at ease, at the court of Frederick II the Great of Prussia, serving as a court harpsichordist. Although being a law graduate, the relationship with Frederick was not the best and Carl Philipp spent a good few years trying to get another position somewhere else.

"The Bach of Hamburg"
The Seven Years' War, oddly enough, relieved him a little because it kept Frederick away from court. But it was not until 1768 that he was able to leave Frederick for good to go and replace the late Georg Philipp Telemann in the post of chapel master of Hamburg, a position he would hold until his death in 1788. There he was known as "the Bach of Hamburg", to differentiate him, perhaps, from his brother Johann Christian, another talented musician, who in turn was recognized as "the Bach of London".

Sighting the Romanticism

Far removed from the rigorous polyphony of his father, Carl Philipp Emanuel is something of a "proto-romantic". Although his work lays between the baroque and classicism, he was the main representative of the Empfindsamer Stil musical movement, similar to the renowned Sturm und Drang, which foreshadows the first elements of romanticism.

An anecdote about a musical evening at the Bach's house shows Carl Philipp as a pale young man with narrowed eyes and almost "possessed", an adjective that would come in handy with any romantic musician of later years.

Concerto for flute, strings, and basso continuo in D minor, Wq 22

While in the service of Frederick the Great, Carl Philipp composed five flute concertos to be incorporated into the king's repertoire, who in addition to being a composer was a somewhat talented flautist, although he could hardly perform them as this requires the skill of a virtuoso. The Concerto in D minor is regularly performed by soloists around the world, especially due to its incomparably agile first movement (allegro di molto: very lively).
It is presented here in the rendition of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, conducted by Stephan Mai. The soloist is Christoph Huntgeburth.