W. F. Bach: Polonaise No. 8 in e minor. John Moraitis, harpsichord.

An exceptional composition by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, embodying transcendence not only in the way Bach treats the genre of the polonaise (whereby dance elements almost disappear behind aria, recitative, and fantasia-like sections), but also in its highly expressive and harmonically adventurous content that, true to the spirit of Empfindsamkeit (referred to in English as the sensitive style), already prefigures 19th-century Romanticism--and, in many respects, is even more Romantic than 19th-century music. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Polonaise No. 8 in e minor (from 12 Polonaises, F. 12). John Moraitis, harpsichord. Harpsichord by Martine Argellies (Montpellier, 2012), after Dulcken. Temperament: Rameau. A=415 Hz.