Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was one of the most original and most significant composers of eighteenth-century Europe. For much of his long career, the name “Bach” when used alone stood for him, not his father Johann Sebastian Bach. In the twentieth century, music historians acknowledged his influence on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and in recent times his music has been the subject of renewed interest. Within the past two decades, spectacular rediscoveries have made available a substantial portion of his output that was long presumed lost, leading to many new recordings and making possible a new complete edition of his works.

Still, as the second son of a famous composer, Emanuel Bach stands in the shadow of his father. The “Bach Revival” of the nineteenth century involved solely Sebastian, and, as the latter's music came to be ranked at the highest level of European art, Emanuel's sank into obscurity. Yet a small fraction of Emanuel Bach's output, including keyboard pieces, songs (lieder), and a few concertos, never disappeared from the sight of scholars and adventurous musicians. His Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (Essay on the true manner of playing keyboard instruments) remained almost constantly in print, albeit sometimes in abbreviated versions.