The first thing that strikes the listener about Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Württemberg Sonatas, written in 1742-43 and dedicated to the Duke of Württemberg, one of CPE Bach’s former students, is how much they can sound like a sonata by Scarlatti on the one hand and by Haydn on the other. Very different indeed to the music of Emanuel’s father, the great JS Bach, was writing then, and was yet to write. 

By turns playful and dramatic, classically poised and full of Sturm und Drang edginess, it’s the epitome of Emfindsamer Stil, all moody turbulence and sentimentality (in the best sense of the word). Astonishing to think Emanuel still had had enough solo keyboard music in him to fill the 26 CDs of Ana-Marija Markovina’s complete account for Hänssler Classics.

Like Markovina, Keith Jarrett performs these works, originally written for harpsichord or clavichord, on a modern piano. As does Marc André-Hamelin for Hyperion, although the latter plays just one of these sonatas (the second, in A-flat) as part of a 2-CD overview...