Bachs Flöten On Tour

About the programme

Emmanuel Pahud hears music of new beginnings from the Potsdam court harpsichordist and composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Bach wrote his experimental, rebellious compositions at the court of Frederick II. Not necessarily what was expected in the ceremonial of an absolutist state. No matter – the “Flute King” saw himself as of the Enlightenment. And the radical music of Carl Philipp Emanuel naturally suited him.

His father Johann Sebastian Bach also wrote his most provocative music for the flute, the orchestral suite in B minor with the famous Badinerie as the final movement. Badinerie: a joke, a tease. These delicacies are contrasted by two modern homages to the past: Henryk Górecki's Three Pieces in Old Style and Grażyna Bacewicz's neoclassically vital Concerto for String Orchestra.