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Pianist Anthony Spiri has well distinguished himself with his sensitive and probing interpretations of the keyboard music of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, having recorded C.P.E. Bach for Camerata and Orfeo and a particularly outstanding outing with W.F. Bach on the Oehms Classics label, previously noted here. This Arte Nova recording of Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 17 sonatas was actually made before all of the others in 2000; however, it has not been previously seen in the United States as it appeared shortly after Arte Nova lost its American distribution owing to the shuttering of BMG’s classical division in North America. In this case, later is certainly better than never, as this is as excellent an extrapolation of the virtues of Johann Christian’s keyboard music, highly valued in its day but neglected in ours, as has ever appeared.

Spiri does this music no harm by projecting it in the idiom commonly associated with Mozart’s piano sonatas as played on the modern piano; the point of reference is well-taken for modern ears. It is very helpful in getting the gist of why Johann Sebastian Bach’s last-born son attracted such fame and fortune during his brief, but brilliant career as the standard bearer of Italian style galant in Greater Europe.