Muthel, Haydn, Mozart Bach: Treasures Of The Empfindsamkeit – Cerasi

   in Early Music Today (Mar, 2015)
Composers writing in the empfindsamer Stil or ‘sensitive style’ (mainly from 18th-century north Germany) believed ‘in the need for convincing, sensitive personal expression at the keyboard’; C. P. E. Bach pleaded for musicians to ‘play from the soul’. Carole Cerasi’s selection of works includes some of the most deeply felt musical utterances ever composed during this time. C. P. E. Bach of course, is well represented, but there are offerings too from his great friend Johann Gottfried Muthel (1728–1788), as well as other enthusiasts of Bach – Haydn and Mozart.

Cerasi’s performance on that ‘lonely, melancholy, inexpressibly sweet instrument’, the clavichord, intensifies the listening experience on this truly inspiring disc, bringing …