J. S. Bach: Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 & C.P.E. Bach: Concerto in D Minor, Wq. 23

A bit of father-son bonding here, with one concerto apiece in the highly expressive key of D minor. Many of Bach senior’s harpsichord concertos were played by his sons at Gottfried Zimmermann’s coffeehouse concerts in Leipzig during the 1730s, and you can tell that young Carl Philipp Emanuel listened carefully to what his father was up to. Gustav Leonhardt always takes his Bach seriously. The pattering figuration in the first movement of Johann Sebastian’s Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 is meticulously even and graceful where many players struggle to avoid the mechanical. The final movement “Allegro,” which can scamper out of control, is kept on a tight but telling leash. So, too, the impassioned style of C.P.E.’s dramatic concerto of 1748, where the jagged themes and leaping lines of the opening are sculpted into a purposeful, passionate argument.