C P E Bach: Fantasia in F-sharp Minor Wq 67 (1787), Robert Hill, fortepiano

[@victoriangirl83]

Listening to this makes me feel better....about everything. I forget all the problems of my life and let this carry me away.

[@nickdryad]

I love the way you can hear the fortepiano’s mechanism. I reminds one of the fact that this instrument is an extension of the human spirit, another voice for the soul.

[@javierbiaggi3072]

A Marvelous composition! very well played! Those Bach kids were fantastic composer that surprise everyone not only by their compositions but they were excellent musicians.

[@stardewofpyrrhia4381]

This is my comfort music now, it feels like the inside of my head :)

[@danielwaitzman2118]

What a wonderful piece, written a year before his death! In fact, C.P.E. Bach died but three years before Mozart--they were contemporaries for 31 years. The idea of Empfindsamkeit as being "pre-classic" is a myth, as is the idea of "preclassicism" itself. In reality, there were, at that time, two galant styles--northern and southern. The latter, espoused by Mozart and Haydn (to a lesser extent) gained ascendancy to become the international style, later called classicism. The former, exemplified by C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach, and Müthel, was a romantic style, with a small following of sophisticated musicians and music-lovers; and yes, it did become the style of 19th-century romanticism.

[@Garrett_Rowland]

I wish this was more well known. It pains me to see even educated musicians talking about this music as being some kind of transition period for the classical style.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

Daniel Waitzman Some interesting points though I think it should be pointed out that the links between CPE and Haydn - in your explanation, ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ - are far more important than the almost non-existent ones between CPE and Mozart - the Versuch excepted. Haydn told his earliest biographers Greisinger and Dies, that CPE had told him that he [Haydn] was the only composer who properly understood his teachings and how to use them, and he was effusive about his debt to CPE for what he learnt from him about composition. You are absolutely right that the empfindsamer Stil of CPE Bach - and others - along with the wider Empfindsamkeit aesthetic are an important part of the Classical style, and should not be seen as being pre-Classical, a precursor, or transitional, and so forth.

[@flippert0]

Interesting ideas! Are you by chance a musicologist, Daniel?

[@Laurencemardon]

I'm totally new to these CPE famtasias ... this one especially is just astounding on so many levels. Beautiful playing!

[@alexanderbayramov2626]

10:31 sounds like last helpless scream, and the way that low A at 10:45 just cuts it... This piece is so emotional and depressing, nearly brings me to tears

[@andreiarochacravopiano4694]

Que lindo professor!!!!! Bravíssimo!

[@gerardbegni2806]

This is one of the most wonderful pieces written for keybord of CPE Bach, who wrote so many pieces in different styles: sonatas, rondos, fantasias .... It ranks well above the fantasias of his brother WFB , which are nevertheless so surprising by their quite innovative harmonic structures. Quite clearly, CPEB here ranks among the great piano pàieces of the premomantic periond, quite close to Mozart's rondo in a mainor, adagio in b minor, allegro in g minor, or great fantasia in c minor. I dare to write that it ranks above Beethoven's fantasia fantasia op. 77. The romantic masterworks by Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, cannot be compared since their are based upon quite different structural grounds. The same for the short but so expressive fanatsias by Brahms.

[@neilwalsh1213]

You hear prefigurations of Beethoven in the mood, I think.

[@gerardbegni2806]

@@neilwalsh1213 More or less, but it belongs to an exm pressive mood that Beethoven rejeted after weiting the "Heiligenstadt Testimony" - which means approximately his so(called "second" manner. We could rather find somilarities in the most expresive scores of his "first" manner and the transcendent expressio of his last manner (piano sonatas ans string quartets). In my opinion, it leads raher us to Schibert and Chopin. Schumann"s fantasia comes form Beethoven's ifluence, Scriabin's op. 18 from Liszt's. Anywhere, there is an outstanding synthesis between ovrall tone continuity and extreme variation in details writing which can hardly be retrieved in similat works, which are eihr er more uniform, either less consequent, or orgaized in side(to(side coherent sections with unifying cells (Mozart, Schubert, Schumann).

[@johnappleseed8369]

This piece sounds so romantic era, ahead of its time??

[@ytcritico6110]

In fact, this is a typical work for the predominant style of early Classicism, called Empfindsamkeit or "sensitive style". It was very popular between 1750 and 1780. CPE Bach's Fantasia is a late work from this era, as it was composed in 1787. Another famous examples are the Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Polonaises. More information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_style

[@johnappleseed8369]

YTCrítico Will check out. Excellent piece nevertheless!!

[@wolkowy1]

Excellent performance of a most beautiful piece by C P E Bach. Bravo! The sound of the fortepiano which was built by your brother K Hill (after Cristofori) is amazing, Robert - and so is your sensitive perfect touch on its keys. I wonder, what is your own conception (from your own knowledge and experience) regarding the discussion here below in the comments, about defining C P E Bach's style? Thanks for this upload which I'll share with my Facebook's friends.

[@morphixnm]

Very beautiful.

[@h.p.734]

I just found out about this piece listening to the new CPE Bach Album by Hamelin. It's definitely my favorite of the album.

[@charlottewhyte9804]

wow beautifyl

[@ezra6094]

Exciting part at 6:56

[@julmyk4790]

Wonderful. So exotic and unpredictable.

[@jamief-h3044]

the beauty of the sublime

[@gerardbegni2806]

If the musical history should keep the memeory of only one work from CPE, I wiould recommend to keep this one. Virtuosos should play it most often. It ranks among the great fantasias, together with Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumannjh, Chopen, Brahms, Scriabin. In my mind, it is musch better tahyn Haydn's C major fantasia - and I do love Haydn.

[@stevenkeller476]

Beautifully done! Amazing time put into this and is much appreciated. Quick question..In measure 3 first 32nd note of the run, would that be an A# instead of a B natural? Didn't sound right to me. Cheers!

[@homomusicus1825]

👀👂

[@paulmauffray]

From the wild fantasy and imagination that went into composing this, his father must have thought he was on drugs! :-) Especially when you consider who his father was!