Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Polonaises and Fantasies

It’s a scary thought to realize piano compositions of the later Bachs, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven etc. sounded much different from what we have all come to appreciate so much when listening to the great interpreters…Arrau, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, you name them; one may wonder if they truly approached the soul of the maestri’s music, in spite of their skills?
Why? The composers mentioned above didn’t know our Steinways. They wrote their pieces for the most advanced keyboard of their time, the fortepiano. And that instrument’s tone hardly resembles the long-sustained sounds of the later pianos.

Which is not to say I dislike the fortepiano. On the contrary, I find its lighter touch a refreshing experience to listen to – but perhaps that’s because I’m so accustomed to the Steinways.

On this album you’ll hear Harald Hoeren perform Polonaises and Fantasies of J.S. Bach’s eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann. In his lifetime perhaps not as famous and successful as his younger and “wilder” brother C.P.E., but nevertheless a worthy representant of the Sturm und Drang period.

tracks:

01. Fantasy in c minor 0:03:18.68
02. Fantasy in a minor, F. 23 0:06:08.55
03. 12 Polonaises, F. 12 (c. 1765) - No. 1 C major 0:04:24.50
04. No. 2 c minor 0:03:19.72
05. No. 3 D major 0:04:17.40
06. No. 4 d minor 0:01:44.65
07. No. 5 Eb major 0:03:50.05
08. No. 6 eb minor 0:05:13.50
09. No. 7 E major 0:04:00.65
10. No. 8 e minor 0:03:57.40
11. No. 9 F major 0:02:28.33
12. No. 10 f minor 0:05:26.07
13. No. 11 G major 0:03:47.58
14. No. 12 g minor 0:04:39.10