This ongoing series seems to be flying under the radar, receiving little attention from critics or music lovers. You just don’t hear people talking about it around the office water cooler. Indeed, this release flew under my own radar, as I was able to cover Volume 17 before this one, which is Volume 14. Better late than never, I guess, especially because there is some exquisite music here. I refer to the delightful Sonatina in C major, a mini-concerto with an opening slow movement of such pellucid beauty that it will take your breath away. The glistening timbre of Miklós Spányi’s tangent piano, half-way between true piano and harpsichord, suits the music perfectly. The piece also features some memorable writing for flutes and horns, while the concluding polonaise is marvelous.
The two larger concertos are equally memorable. That in A minor offers the Sturm und Drang Bach that we’re more used to, while the E-flat concerto’s minor-key slow movement contains plenty of that passionate despair that C.P.E. made such a specialty. In its outer movements, though, it’s remarkably mellow, but always harmonically surprising. The relatively small forces never drown out the soloist, and of course the accompaniments by the Opus X ensemble are “period”–but not to the point that they turn ugly or unacceptably dry. Fabulous engineering captures the performances with complete naturalness. A splendid disc. [9/21/2009]
