C. P. E. Bach The Complete Keyboard Concertos, Volume 8. Concertos for Keyboard and Strings — B minor, H440; F, H443;

G, H444. MiklOs Spfinyi (tangent pf);

Concerto Armonico.

BIS 0 CD867 (80 minutes: DDD).

Volume 8 of MiklOs Spanyi's examination of the complete keyboard concertos of C. P. E. Bach sees him turning to that rarely heard but rather beautiful instrument, the tangent piano. Halfway between a harpsichord and a clavichord, it has the incisiveness of the former and the delicacy and dynamic variability of the latter, the resulting effect being that of a silvery, almost elfin fortepiano. As this would seem to be an almost perfect keyboard instrument, one is left wondering why it did not catch on, but possibly it lacks volume in concert, a factor which is difficult to judge from a recording.

Spanyi's selection of it for this particular recording is not without its perverse side, however, since one of these concertos (H444) was probably composed for Princess Amalia, the sister of Bach's employer Frederick the Great, to play on the organ. Spanyi reasons that certain details of Bach's later version of the work (played here) show the composer in the act of adapting it to a stringed keyboard instrument. Fair enough, but it does seem odd to turn down the opportunity to use the organ when the tangent piano could easily be used somewhere else.

That is not to say that H444 does not work perfectly well on the tangent piano, especially as Spanyi's grasp of this unusual instrument is so impressively nimble-fingered and controlled. He is accompanied by a boisterous band of baroque strings, who invest the outer movements with all the requisite terse energy and show themselves suitably expressive in the slow ones, but further refinement is difficult to gauge, thanks to an overresonant acoustic in which the bass wells up to potentially headache-inducing effect.

As for the music, it is vintage C. P. E. Bach, skilfully written, changeable in mood and often juxtaposing the brusque with the tender in quick succession. It is surprising, then, that these concertos do not leave a greater impression, but perhaps at 25-30 minutes each they are simply too long. Never mind though — the tangent piano is fascination enough. LK