Tenor Norbert Meyn talks about his new Toccata Classics release, C.P.E. Bach: Spiritual Songs, in the latest Toccata Podcast. Listen here, or subscribe in iTunes.
C. P. E. Bach’s two collections of religious songs, published in 1758 and 1780–81, were among the most popular eighteenth-century Lieder publications. Here a selection of them is recorded for the first time with complete texts and accompanied with the clavichord, the composer’s favourite instrument, underlining their intimate nature, intended more for private devotional use than for public performance. The recording includes the ‘Hamlet Fantasy’ that resulted when the poet Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg imposed his paraphrase of Hamlet’s soliloquy on one of C. P. E. Bach’s keyboard pieces.
Tracks on Podcast:
- From Sturms geistliche Gesänge mit Melodien: No. 7, Prüfung am Abend (Self-Reflection in the Evening)
- ‘Seyn oder Nicht-seyn’, Phantasie von C. P .E. Bach mit untergelegtem Text von Gerstenberg (‘To be, or not to be?’ Fantasia in C minor with words by H. W. von Gerstenberg) (pub. 1787)
