Deux mondes. Au fils les audaces et les visions de l’Aufklärung, au père dans l’épure intemporelle déjà un modernisme absolu. Ce jeu de miroir qui renverse les valeurs, Einav Yarden l’ose sur un sublime piano à cordes parallèles signé Chris Maene, qui éclaire tout, les polyphonies du père, les étrangetés du fils, faisant entendre les inventions qui ardent la Fantaisie chromatique et Fugue ou les danses stylisées de la Deuxième Suite anglaise ( écoutez comme elle file les Bourrées et la Gigue) saisissant les épices harmoniques et les phrasés expressifs qui sont la raison d’être des Rondo et des Fantaisies du fils. Et les Sonates ? Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach fait ici un point de rupture encore plus saillant avec l’œuvre de son père anticipant dans la Sonate prussienne sur les humeurs et les caprices de Haydn. Rompu au style du second (elle a enregistré un plein disque Haydn, voir ici), Einav Yarden fait assaut de fantaisie, et comme cela sonne dans un si beau meuble ! Pourtant la pièce maitresse de l’album reste chez Bach. La Fantaisie chromatique et Fugue déploie sa vaste arabesque, décor fabuleux que la pianiste envole avant de mener grand train une fugue belle comme un Kupka, d’une perfection abstraire où les lumières des polyphonies dansent. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) When I first discovered C.P.E Bach’s keyboard music, I remember being completely amazed by its versatility and originality, by its inventiveness, spectrum of expression and its boldness. I was equally astounded by how much he preceded his time, that only one generation away from his father’s High Baroque, and long before the Viennese Classical School fully flourished, he experimented so widely, pushed boundaries tirelessly, and in many ways laid the foundation for what was to become the Classical style. That he influenced Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven is clear and known, but one could also argue that he foreshadowed in certain ways the Romantic period. With this album I wish to shed light on this brilliant composer’s music, but wanted to do so while placing him next to the composer he most admired, but from whom he also needed to diverge and completely redefine himself – his father, Johann Sebastian Bach. The differences are extreme in every parameter, but some interesting parallels also emerge, as in the relationship to the written improvisation, the fantasia and the rondo. The majority of the C.P.E. Bach pieces on this album were written in the later part of his career, but two of them were written in the 1740’s, in other words while his father was still alive and writing. Each in its way, they offer a window into this interesting transition period in musical style and in C.P.E.’s composition. The works from his later period further unfold his endless originality and ceaseless urge to experiment. The incredible masterpieces of J.S. Bach are milestones of beauty and perfection - and when heard next to the son’s pieces, they further highlight just how far, and in how many directions, the son went. This recording was made using a Chris Maene Concert Grand built in 2017. This remarkable instrument combines the knowledge and materials used in modern piano building with those found in older historical instruments. The most striking feature is that unlike in modern grand pianos, in which the strings in the bass and middle registers cross, in this instrument all strings run parallel to each other. As a result, it combines the solidity of a modern concert grand piano with the transparent sound ideal of older instruments. (Einav Yarden)
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