CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH (1714-1788): Prussian Sonatas, Wq 48/1-6.

Description: Dating from 1742, these are pieces with a cantabile quality and broad, sweet Italianate melodies which are a legacy of the passing baroque idiom; these combine with elements of the new galant style to foreshadow C.P.E.'s mature style. Released as part of BIS' mammoth complete series in 1997 and 1998 on a clavichord but collectors may want to hear them on a period fortepiano; this Hofmann, in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, dates from around 1790. Susan Alexander-Max (Hofmann grand piano).