Music of the Sensitive Style for Flute and Harp

The Empfindsam or “sentimental” style of music embodied by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and his contemporaries was a direct response to the most modern literary in Germany and intellectual currents of their time. It developed with the rise of the middle class in the later eighteenth century and its hallmarks are subjective feelings, extreme displays of emotion and the triumph of feeling over reason. The use of harp on this recording is unprecedented, but upon reflection directly in keeping with the tendencies of the age. The subtleties of dynamics and articulation possible on this instrument make it an ideal companion to the transverse flute; together this instrumental duo is excellently suited to the expressive needs of the “Empfindsamer Stil”.