C P E Bach

Keyboard Sonatas — B flat, H116; G, H119. Easy Keyboard Sonatas — C, HI62; B flat, H180; A minor, H181

Mikkis Spinyi clay BIS 0 CD964 (73 minutes: DDD

More in MiklOs Spanyi's C P E Bach survey, and again with maddeningly variable results

Spanyi's determination to further the cause of C P E Bach continues unabated. This is Volume 5 in the plan to record the solo keyboard works (over 300 pieces), and technically it is the best yet. The engineering here is more artistic than in previous issues, particularly Volume 1. Presentation is still on the close side (Spanyi's intakes of breath are intrusive) but the tonal beauty of the instrument has been captured very well.

The style of performance remains controversial. Granted that C P E Bach's music is laden with eccentricities and that Spanyi should want to convey them, but he does so frequently at the expense of continuity. In the third movement of H116, he holds up the flow to emphasise whatever he feels is of special interest. Darrell M Berg, the booklet annotator, states that the first movement of H119 depends on perpetual motion for its propulsion and the writing suggests as much. Spanyi clearly disagrees: he disrupts the pulse with abrupt changes that destroy momentum. Yet he is able to hold structures together when he wants to, as in the last movement of HI 80. And in the first movement of the same sonata his playing reflects the marking Allegretto grazioso. When Spanyi resists the temptation to respond only to the moment, he is cohesive. But when he chooses to be wayward beyond the call of the music, he is maddeningly distracting. It's a case of swings and roundabouts — as it has been before. Nalen Anthoni