The
Young Bach - A Virtuoso
Prelude & Fugue in G minor, BWV 550
Fantasia & Imitatio in B minor, BWV 563
Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Prelude in G, BWV 568
Fugue à la gigue in G, BWV 577
"Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578
"Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten", BWV 690
"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr", BWV 715
"Christ lag in Todesbanden", BWV 718
"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott", BWV 720
"Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott", BWV 721
"Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ", BWV 722
"Herr Gott, dich loben wir", BWV 725
"Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend", BWV 726
"In dulci jublio", BWV 729
"Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich", BWV 732
"Vater unser in Hemmelreich", BWV 737
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her", BWV 738
"Wie schön leucht uns der Morgenstern", BWV 739
Wolfgang
Zerer on the organ
of St Martinkerk in Groningen
HÄNSSLER
Classic CD 92.089
[n.a.] mid-price
The
Little Organ Book
(Chorale preludes)
BWVs 599-644
Kay Johanssen
on the Arp Schnitger Organ of Capel
HÄNSSLER
Classic CD 92.094
[n.a.] mid-price
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As
you know, the Edition Hänssler-Bachakademie
is a monumental undertaking by Hänssler Classic and the International
Bachakademie (Stuttgart) under the artistic direction of Helmuth
Rilling. The aim is to record the complete works of Bach, 170 CDs
worth, releasing the first cycle in 1999 and the last on July 28,
2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death.
For
the organ afficionado, this edition is particularly attractive.
Excellent and concise notes on each piece is provided by Elsie Pfitzer,
and translated into four languages.
A
complete stop list for each organ is also included. For the large
organ used in the recording of the Orgelbüchlein, because
of its long, complicated evolutionary existence (many restorations
and additions), every stop and its builder is clearly indicated.
The recording artist also includes a detailed account of his registrations.
The
Orgelbüchlein, the primer of all serious organ students,
is a collection of short, mostly single-versed chorales (Lutheran
hymns) for the organist to play in between congregational singing.
Each one of the chorales interpret the "affekt" of the text
with astonishing ingenuity and intensity.
Using
the rich palette of the large Apingedam-Schnitger organ in Martinkerk,
Groningen, Prof Zerer interprets the chorales with much sensitivity
and flair. I particularly enjoyed the bitter sweet setting of O
Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross and the exuberantly executed
In dir ist Freude.
Using
a much smaller instrument, but one of the best preserved Arp Schnitger
organs from the early 18th century, Prof Johanssen, Church Music
Director of the Stuttgart Collegiate Church, plays the works of
the young JS Bach.
This
disc should delight all organ enthusiasts including the absolute
beginner. The famous Toccata in D Minor, the "Little" Prelude and
Fugue in G Major and the Fugue in G Major, (usually called "Fugue
à la Gigue) as well as 17 other chorales are all included in this
recording.
Many
consider the Schnitger organ the ideal instrument for the playing
of Bach's works. We know for a fact that Bach knew these organs
well, even if he never served in a church that had one.
Get
this disc and enjoy the verve and vivacity of the young upstart
virtuoso, Johann Sebastian. It was said that he played as if he
had wings on his feet !
Margaret
Chen, Soli Deo Gratias
A
Scholarship Boy
by Benjamin Chee
The
role of the church in the everyday life of the medieval person was
all but unavoidable. Forming part of the "three pillars" of feudal
society ("those who rule, those who pray and those who toil"), to
reject the Catholic religion was to invite harassment, torture and
even death.
But
by the time Bach was born in Eisenach on 21 March 1685, religous
toleration was the order of the day. Luther's Reformation of 1530
had spread from Germany and Protestanism had taken root in every
part of Europe, but friction between differing ideologies continued.
This abrasion resulted in the disastrous Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648,
a conflict which left most of Germany in ruins and an overwhelming
realization that such wars were even too high a price to pay, which
some tolerance could have avoided altogether.
Eisenach
was itself a centre of Lutheranism - as a boy Luther himself had
stayed in the town - and Bach received an education heavily influenced
by his family's Lutherian orthodoxy. He received his early musical
education from his elder brother, who was organist at the church
of Ohrdruf, so it was not surprising that Bach himself became associated
with church organs in his formative years.
Bach
studied at Ohrdruf until he received a scholarship to the Martinsschule
in Lüneberg, a somewhat more cosmopolitan locale with a tremendous
wealth of music. It was here that he was exposed to the musical
influences of the French and Italians, even if such foreign connections
were disliked by the Pietists. Not that this bothered Bach, who
made no distinction between the sacred music to be used in religious
services and the secular music for his own use. Rather, he always
considered his music in the foremost to be his personal expression
for the glory of God.
If you wish to
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704:
30.4.2000 © Margaret Chen; Benjamin Chee
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