Texte paru dans: / Appeared in:
 
Fanfare Magazine: 38:6 (07-08/2015) 
Pour s'abonner / Subscription information
Les abonnés à Fanfare Magazine ont accès aux archives du magazine sur internet.
Subscribers to Fanfare Magazine have access to the archives of the magazine on the net.

Signum
SIGCD395



Code-barres / Barcode : 0635212039526

Outil de traduction (Très approximatif)
Translator tool (Very approximate)

This disc presents several of C. P. E. Bach’s symphonies that are available in other performances—Wq 179 and 182/4 by Hartmut Haenchen, Wq 183/1 and 3 by Gustav Leonhardt with this same orchestra (or, at least, an earlier incarnation of this same orchestra)—but not this specific group. One big change since the Leonhardt days is that the new Age of Enlightenment orchestra has apparently not gotten the memo that strict straight tone all the time on every note is not the way to go; thus the strings sound even tighter (in the unflattering sense of the word) and glassier, more artificial and less like violins, than they did under Leonhardt. In addition, the playing style has likewise gotten tighter, meaning no rubato inflections and a very minimal range of dynamics. I really wish that just one of these musicians would come out and say exactly why they think that orchestras in the days of yore sounded slick, unemotional, and computerized. I doubt that even one of the orchestras Mozart fought with to play his symphonies in tune sounded like this—not even a little bit—and Mozart was pretty much a contemporary of late-period C. P. E. Bach.

The music is, of course, brilliant and revolutionary. There is a certain amount of energy in the performances, I’ll give them that, but nothing else. If, however, this is your concept of what 18th-century music sounds like, go for it.

Cliquez l'un ou l'autre bouton pour découvrir bien d'autres critiques de CD
 Click either button for many other reviews