This recording features the six Sonatas believed to have been written for organ by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and contributes notably to the renewed interest in the composer during the 300th anniversary year of his birth. The Sonatas are performed here on the Amalia organ in Berlin by the acclaimed soloist and early music expert Ton Koopman.

Although CPE Bach left a substantial body of work after his death, relatively few of these works appear to have been written specifically for the organ. Many experts believe that several have been lost. There are also questions surrounding those works that have survived, his organ sonatas. Only one of them exists in manuscript form and is to be found in the collection of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, youngest sister of Frederick the Great. There is also considerable debate as to whether he actually wrote five or six of these sonatas.

The organ on which Ton Koopman has made this recording once belonged to Anna Amalia, having been installed in her Berlin mansion in 1755, the same year that marked the appearance of four of these works. The instrument, manufactured by Peter Migendt, has two manuals and a pedal board, with what was an exceptional range for those days.

Ton Koopman is one of the world’s foremost early music keyboard specialists and directors. He is particularly renowned for his work around the music of J S Bach, and was awarded the 2006 Bach Medal by the city of Leipzig at the annual Leipzig Bach Festival.