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Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814)
Piano Concerto in G minor (1777)
Eckart Sellheim, piano Capella Coloniensis / Ulf Björlin

 

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Of course, CPE Bach is a very familiar name but I wonder how many of us are familiar with his keyboard concertos (BIS issued some 20 CDs of them) and nearly all are really worth getting to know. There is so much magic in them and we can also hear the transition from the Baroque to the Classical - some works have both feet in one of these "camps" but in others he seems to have one foot in each.

I think I heard each of them at least once, and still listen to them occasionally while I do chores. If I were to pick one to recommend to anyone, it would be the D minor, Wq 22. While Wq. 6, 7, 15, 17, 23, 26 (and the ones transcribed as cello cocnertos), 34 (with its emphasis on the galant style), etc, are melodically memorable. The slow movements of Wq. 20, 27 moody harmonically. But these days I find Bach a bit too rhythmically static, especially in the 8-9 minute long concerto slow movements (compared to his elderly contemporary Richter (1709-1789)).

 

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Btw, Reichardt's G minor, which I posted in #8 is noteworthy for reflecting his musical philosophy of continuity and unity (note that how there are no "breaks" between the movements of the concerto, like how his singspiel Erwin und Elmire has no "breaks".

"In two melodramas from the 1770s, Reichardt developed an incipient form of leitmotiv, devising musical expressions of moods and ideas that recurred whenever justified by the drama rather than according to considerations of musical form. Long before Wagner, he described the process in his widely circulated Musikalisches Kunstmagazin (1782). The Greek tragedies Prokris und Cephalus and Ino initially appealed to him as subjects for melodramas because they allowed him to create an individual musical theme "for each passion, for each shading of passion," and in so doing, "to bring more unity to the whole." Both in practice and in theory, Reichardt was an important precedent for Wagner, who also credited his motivic technique for fostering a musical unity ..." (Motives for Allusion)​

Joseph Anton Steffan (1726 - 1797)
This one starts with a long moody slow introduction.-

 

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Hummel No.5 in A flat