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The Brilliant Classics label has established a reputation for issuing very good (though rarely great) box sets of major composers at bargain prices. Most famous in their catalog are the Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart complete works editions. Perhaps as an appendix to the Bach complete edition, we have this 7-CD set of music from the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. None of Bach's sons achieved the stature or reached the pinnacles of their father, but there is excellent music here. And it should also be said at the outset that this is not a "complete works," edition, but rather a showcase of the better works by Bach's sons.

The first three discs are works of C.P.E. Bach: The Berlin Symphonies, some of the cello concerti, and some of the flute concerti. A pick-up orchestra calling themselves the C.P.E. Bach Chamber Orchestra plays the Berlin Symphonies under Hartmut Haenchen, and the playing is mostly very good. Balazs Mate is the soloist for the cello concerti, with mixed results, but his style is certainly sympathetic to the pieces if his intonation occasionally misses. Machiko Takahashi is our flute soloist, though two of the three flute concerti were originally for oboe, and the lower oboe range doesn't always make for brilliant flute playing. Takahashi's technique often seems muddy, though his sound is very lush. Nonetheless, it was common practice for later Baroque and early Classical concerti to be played on a variety of instruments, so the approach is certainly valid. The Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra sounds fantastic in its accompanying role.


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