The Purcell Quartet - C.P.E. Bach: La Folia and Other Works (1988)

This disc was an instant classic from the time it was issued in 1988, the Purcell Quartet's C.P.E. Bach: La Folia and other works. The disc features four chamber pieces and one harpsichord solo that, taken together, span all but the first and last decades of his output and contains some of the most pioneering and experimental-sounding music Bach created. The Trio Sonata in C minor "Sanguineus and Melancholicus" (1749) pits the Greek notions of the sanguine and melancholy against one another in a twisted musical dialogue, foreshadowing psychological form, a development that didn't take hold until the advent of Beethoven. Bach's late 12 Variations on La Folia (1776) are blustery and brilliant and played with a sense of urgency by the Purcell Quartet's leader, harpsichordist Robert Woolley. The remaining works -- Gamba and Trio sonatas and a "Sinfonia" stated in chamber dimensions -- are pieces superficially easier to reconcile with their era, yet they too brim with a sense of excitement and the unexpected. Helios' C.P.E. Bach: La Folia and other works makes clear that whatever Bach "son number two" was up to, he was on his own turf and only adopted the style galant so far as to make his rugged constructions palatable to the public taste; the rest is all genius. Likewise, there is an amount of genius in the Purcell Quartet's performances; the pacing and sensitivity of the playing gives Bach's music just what it needs to speak to us, and avoids the benign facelessness of so many recordings of eighteenth century music. This disc was reissued on Hyperion's mid-price Helios label in 2007.