Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Edition

This release from Brilliant Classics is the first ever to present a comprehensive selection of all facets of Wilhelm Friedemanns musical output: orchestral, chamber, keyboard and vocal. To the music long known to be his, from musicologist Martin Falcks catalogue of 1913 and the Bach-Repertorium edited by Peter Wollny, have been added formerly unknown or misattributed works that affirm his remarkable genius, from the collection of Sarah Itzig Levy and the recently found Vilnius manuscript of keyboard music. His Sinfonias are transitional in form from Baroque to Classical, much like his compositional style as a whole, which looks back to the rigorous counterpoint of his her while embracing the emotional expression of the empfindsamer style. Sinfonias were evolving from instrumental overtures attached to larger vocal forms into stand-alone works, forerunners of the modern symphony, containing their own discrete movements. The Suite in G minor, formerly attributed to his her, is one such piece. His Harpsichord Concertos combine binary sonata form with the traditional ritornello. The chamber music in this set features the flute and includes the erstwhile-misattributed Sonata in F. The sizeable collection of Keyboard Works performed here by eminent harpsichordist Claudio Astronio represents the largest part of Wilhelm Friedemanns surviving oeuvre and also includes many new discoveries, while the Organ Music, from a composer considered to be the greatest organist of his day, leaves one wishing for more, either because the manuscripts simply did not survive or because Wilhelm Friedemann was such a skilled improviser that he wrote down sadly little of the organ wizardry with which he awed his contemporaries. The Cantatas are multi-movement works he composed for major feast days while director at Halles Liebfrauenkirche.

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