Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach : NPR

Víkingur Ólafsson Wants To Change Your Mind About Mozart

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson sets the music of Mozart amid his peers to offer a fresh take on the master composer. Ari Magg/Deutsche Grammophon hide caption

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Ari Magg/Deutsche Grammophon

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Víkingur Ólafsson Wants To Change Your Mind About Mozart

September 3, 2021 • On his new album, Mozart & Contemporaries, the deep-thinking pianist from Iceland aims to debunk the image of Amadeus as the giggling savant by contrasting his music with that of his peers.

Víkingur Ólafsson Wants To Change Your Mind About Mozart

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Music And Mayhem: A Diary Of Classical Albums For A Troubled 2020

The dance of death, an ancient image that inspired Thomas Adès to compose his Totentanz. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Music And Mayhem: A Diary Of Classical Albums For A Troubled 2020

December 21, 2020 • NPR Music's classical editor traces the high points of a year spent listening to new albums that offered comfort and confrontation in counterpoint with the relentless world outside the headphones.

C.P.E. Bach: Mercurial Diversions For Uncertain Times

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's mercurial music, with its sparkle and unpredictability, was a departure from the style of his father, Johann Sebastian. De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

C.P.E. Bach: Mercurial Diversions For Uncertain Times

May 11, 2020 • In a new album of keyboard concertos, hear how J.S. Bach's son charted his own startling and original path in music that sparkles with unpredictability

C.P.E. Bach: Mercurial Diversions For Uncertain Times

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A Kid Named Carl Stirs Up The Bach Musical Dynasty

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, captured around 1733, in a portrait by one of his relatives, Gottlieb Friedrich Bach. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

A Kid Named Carl Stirs Up The Bach Musical Dynasty

March 8, 2014 • On the 300th anniversary of his birth, hear how music by Johann Sebastian's son Carl Philipp Emanuel bridged the gap between the old-fashioned Baroque and newfangled music by Haydn and Mozart.

A Kid Named Carl Stirs Up The Bach Musical Dynasty

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Calculated Instability: The Pioneering Sonatas Of C.P.E. Bach

The special effects in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's music helped forge a new cutting-edge style. /De Agostini/Getty Images hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

Calculated Instability: The Pioneering Sonatas Of C.P.E. Bach

November 20, 2012 • British pianist Danny Driver uncovers the impetuous mood swings, curious key changes and whiplash stops and starts that define C.P.E. Bach's leading-edge style.