Danny Driver - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 1 (2010)

Single-disc collections of C.P.E. Bach sonatas are still comparatively rare, let alone new releases coming from pianists. This is odd: the music is quite wonderful–quirky, affecting, and always a joy to hear–and the piano was, along with the clavichord, Bach’s preferred instrument. Certainly these sonatas sound demonstrably better under Danny Driver’s capable fingers than they do coming from any harpsichord player. The reason is simple: dynamics. Driver understands (and generously observes) Bach’s often surprisingly elaborate dynamic indications, and the resultant variety of touch and timbre gives this music the expressive dimension that it really requires. At the same time, Driver also knows how to inflect a phrase without losing the pulse or turning this already eruptive and sometimes disjunctive music into a collection of seemingly unrelated gestures.

Highlights are too numerous to mention. Bach in minor keys is always remarkable–often shockingly emotional–and there are examples of this aplenty in the G minor and C minor sonatas. But all of the slow movements are affecting, and there’s much more to this music than Sturm und Drang. Several of the finales, that of the B-flat major sonata in particular, clearly prefigure Haydn in their adventurous syncopations and wacky humor. Haydn himself acknowledged the influence, but few instances reveal themselves as clearly as in this example. So by all means do sample this delightful recording of music that deserves far more exposure than it gets.

Review by David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Danny Driver's third disc for Hyperion is a horse of a different color from his first two. Those covered the rich, post-Romantic music of York Bowen, music that bears little in common with the music of C.P.E. Bach. About the only thing in common between the two composers is that they performed and wrote for keyboard instruments. Yet their music – as divergent as their styles are – appeals to Driver.

The Bach sonatas included here are three of the six Prussian Sonatas framed by two slightly later sonatas, including the fantasia-like Sonata in G minor, H47, unpublished in Bach's lifetime. Together these show Bach to be a highly individual composer, taking elements of traditional Baroque keyboard writing and morphing them into new forms with new expressive qualities. What marks all of these, and maybe what appeals to Driver, is the way moods shift and change in each movement, often suddenly and in unexpected directions. One moment the music dances along in a lightly animated manner, then suddenly it becomes calmly philosophical. The Prussian Sonatas, which have more structure to them, foreshadow Haydn's sonatas, but there are still elements of Baroque dance suites in them. The opening of the Sonata in B flat major, H25, is an example of this, combining a dance with ornate runs more associated with fantasias. Driver brings out the eccentricities of the music by making the sudden dynamic changes as great as possible without exaggerating the extremes and by shifting tempos a little more greatly or freely than one might expect with sonatas of this era. However, his control of touch and articulation is light and clean enough to keep the music from becoming at all Romanticized. All of his interpretive choices are made to show just how unconventional Bach's music was for his time, how it bridged the Baroque and Classical eras, and they are made in a satisfyingly musical way, as well. Hyperion's sound is excellent as usual, however, it is engineered somewhat on the quiet side, so the volume has to be up to catch all of the wide changes in dynamics.

Review by Patsy Morita, Allmusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 27. October 2011, 14:52

Danny Driver / Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Keyboard Sonatas

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-07-13 01:08:15

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Danny Driver / Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Keyboard Sonatas
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -9.60 dB -27.87 dB 5:59 01-Sonata in G minor, H 47 - 1. Allegro
DR13 -12.82 dB -31.59 dB 4:32 02-Sonata in G minor, H 47 - 2. Adagio
DR14 -9.40 dB -27.77 dB 4:55 03-Sonata in G minor, H 47 - 3. Allegro assai
DR13 -8.60 dB -26.12 dB 7:23 04-Sonata in A major, H 29 - 1. Allegro
DR15 -9.47 dB -31.88 dB 4:29 05-Sonata in A major, H 29 - 2. Adagio
DR14 -9.80 dB -28.30 dB 7:28 06-Sonata in A major, H 29 - 3. Allegro
DR13 -12.88 dB -29.40 dB 5:52 07-Sonata in B flat major, H 25 - 1. Vivace
DR15 -12.24 dB -32.96 dB 4:01 08-Sonata in B flat major, H 25 - 2. Adagio
DR13 -10.05 dB -27.54 dB 3:02 09-Sonata in B flat major, H 25 - 3. Allegro assai
DR15 -8.53 dB -29.29 dB 6:49 10-Sonata in C minor, H 27 - 1. Allegro
DR15 -12.93 dB -33.59 dB 4:27 11-Sonata in C minor, H 27 - 2. Adagio
DR12 -11.98 dB -26.86 dB 2:46 12-Sonata in C minor, H 27 - 3. Presto
DR14 -9.61 dB -27.75 dB 8:15 13-Sonata in E flat major, H 50 - 1. Poco allegro
DR14 -11.38 dB -32.61 dB 4:55 14-Sonata in E flat major, H 50 - 2. Adagio assai
DR12 -10.65 dB -26.21 dB 3:05 15-Sonata in E flat major, H 50 - 3. Presto
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

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Official DR value: DR14

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