About the album

C.P.E. Bach left a substantial body of work after his death. He left relatively few works for organ. These have given rise to considerable debate: how many of his works have been lost, and should a particular piece be played on the organ or some other keyboard instrument? There are also several questions surrounding his organ sonatas: did he write five or six of them? In any event, only one of them survives in manuscript, in the collection of Amalia of Prussia. Princess Anna Amalia,youngest sister of Frederick the Great, played the organ and was the fortunate owner of no fewer than two organs. The organ on which I recorded these six sonatas once belonged to her, having been installed in her Berlin mansion in 1755, the same year that marked the appearance of four of these Organ Sonatas. The instrument, manufactured by Peter Migendt, has two manuals and a pedal board, with what was an exceptional range for those days. In the period 1753-1755, C.P.E. Bach was keenly looking for alternative positions. Was he perhaps hoping for an appointment with the princess? It appears that she was not altogether taken by C.P.E. Bach’s style, rather preferring his father’s music.
It was a delight to be allowed to record these works on this beautiful Migendt organ, following its recent restoration.