The clavichord has
its origins in the 15th century and
was built well into the 19th century.
Whereas in the renaissance and the baroque
the clavichord was just one of the possibilities
to play keyboard music, and was often
used to practice keyboard playing, in
the middle of the 18th century composers
specifically wrote music with this instrument
in mind. One of them was Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach.
"After dinner (...)
I prevailed upon him to sit down
again to a clavichord, and he played
with little intermission, till nearly
eleven o'clock at night. During
this time, he grew so animated and
possessed, that he looked like one
inspired. His eyes were fixed, his
under lip fell, and drops of effervescence
distilled from his countenance".
With these words Charles
Burney described a meeting with Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach around 1770, who
was at that time considered the greatest
keyboard player in Germany. This description
reflects the change in attitude towards
performing music. In the centuries before
performers were urged by the writers
of treatises never to show their inner
feelings, and always keep a straight
face. But in the period music history
has labelled the 'Empfindsamkeit' performers
were urged to do the opposite: the sentiments
in the music should be expressed on
the face of the performer. On other
instances Carl Philipp Emanuel was seen
shedding tears while playing. An indication
of the more personal style of composing
was his piece for keyboard 'Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bachs Empfindungen' ('CPhE Bach's
emotions'). A piece with such a title
was unthinkable before.
More than any other
instrument the clavichord was able to
comply with the requirements of this
new approach. Unlike the harpsichord
the clavichord allows the player to
have a very direct and close contact
with the strings and to influence its
sound. It was even possible to create
a vibrato by pressing the key after
striking it; this effect was called
'Bebung'. This circumstance made the
clavichord pre-eminently suitable to
express feelings.
Carl Philipp Emanuel
composed a large number of pieces for
the keyboard. Like most composers of
his time he had two different kinds
of target groups: on the one hand the
'Kenner', the professional keyboard
players, on the other hand the 'Liebhaber',
the amateurs. It would be a mistake
to compare these 'amateurs' with the
kind of players which are today referred
to by this word. Telemann - Carl Philipp
Emanuel's godfather - was someone who
composed a huge number of works for
amateurs, and from the technical demands
of these works one has to conclude that
the performing skills of the amateurs
of those days were considerable.
In his series of recordings
of the complete works for keyboard solo
by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Miklos
Spányi has devoted the tenth
volume to works written for amateurs.
They are technically easier, but also
stylistically less personal. Here we
don't find many of the characteristics
of Bach's more personal compositions,
like the keyboard fantasias or the symphonies.
In the liner notes Darrell M. Berg writes:
"All these sonatas belong to the style
known now and in Bach's time as 'galant':
they are light and pleasant in character,
and consist mostly of simple homophonic
textures (...)." In the light of what
has been said above about the character
of the clavichord one could ask whether
the choice to play these pieces on this
instrument is the most logical. How
many amateurs will have had a clavichord
at their home? Isn't it more likely
that many of them will have played these
pieces on the 'old' harpsichord?
In particular the work
in the middle of this disc, the Suite
in e minor, sounds like a typical harpsichord
piece. It is a work which is written
in imitation of the 'style brisé'
of the French 'clavecinistes'. In this
suite - which was an old-fashioned form
in the time it was written (the 1750's)
- Johann Sebastian is never far away.
But, since the clavichord was always
considered an alternative to the harpsichord,
there is nothing against playing these
works on this instrument.
And Miklos Spányi
is playing quite beautifully. He uses
every opportunity to create as much
tension as possible. One of the tools
he uses is the rubato, for example in
the very first track of this disc. He
also generously adds ornamentation in
the repeats.
The fact that the compositions
recorded here are less 'personal' than
some other works by Bach can also be
gathered from the tempo indications:
there are no 'adagios' here, most middle
movements have the indication 'andante'.
The 'larghetto' from the Sonata in g
minor (Wq 65,27) is the only real slow
movement here, together with the 'sarabande'
from the Suite. In this respect the
choice of tempo in the performance isn’t
always satisfying. In particular the
'andante' movements from the first two
sonatas on this disc are a little too
slow.
In general Spányi's
playing is very good. He uses a clavichord,
built by the Belgian Joris Potvlieghe.
One of the striking aspects of it is
its powerful sound. He copied an instrument
by Gottfried Joseph Horn, which is now
in the Museum of Musical Instruments
in Leipzig. In the booklet Spányi
makes special reference to the "extremely
long after-reverberation of the strings
(produced by the undamped part of the
strings between bridge and tuning pin),
which beautifully fills the pauses when
necessary and gives resonance to the
typically thin texture."
It is unclear from
the text to what extent this is also
the characteristic of the original instrument
or whether this is actually an 'improvement'
by the builder. The fact that some keyboard
makers present their instruments as
'copies' of original instruments whereas
in fact they are built 'after models'
from a certain period makes me a little
suspicious in cases where the instrument
does sound different from almost any
specimen I have heard before. I have
to leave the question whether this sound
is really 'historically founded' unanswered
for the time being.
This disc presents
a lesser-known aspect of Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach and is therefore an interesting
and well-performed contribution to our
knowledge of this master of the 'Empfindsamkeit'.
Johan van Veen