J.S. Bach on the Organ

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Did you include Hans Ola Ericsson?

Hans Ola, how did I miss you?!?

But actually, even looking for it now... I can't find any J.S.Bach cycle of his. Are you sure he's recorded a substantial amount of his music on organ? Is it out on CD?

Side note on Koopman

As a sort of context setting, he includes some of the chorales Bach arranged /harmonized for four part chorus: the choral chorales as I like to call them.

The choral chorales seem almost terra incognita, but I like them.

Ah, yes, I LOVE that about his set. I've since gone out to find other recordings thus arranged (early Rilling and the Brilliant recording with whatshammcallhim), but no one has put Koopman in the shadow in that aspect.

[Marc]

Hans Ola, how did I miss you?!?

But actually, even looking for it now... I can't find any J.S.Bach cycle of his. Are you sure he's recorded a substantial amount of his music on organ? Is it out on CD?[...]

Maybe he's working on an integral.
Label: Euridice, Norway.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Early Organ Works (EUCD 66, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Chorale Partitas (2 CDs) (EUCD 67, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orgelbüchlein (2 CDs) (EUCD 68, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Trio Sonatas for organ in Chamber Ensemble Setting (EUCD 69, Euridice, Norway) (with other instrumentalists)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Late organ Works (2 CDs) (EUCD 71, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Dritter Teil der Clavierübung (2 CDs) (EUCD 72, Euridice, Norway)

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Maybe he's working on an integral.
Label: Euridice, Norway.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Early Organ Works (EUCD 66, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Chorale Partitas (2 CDs) (EUCD 67, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orgelbüchlein (2 CDs) (EUCD 68, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Trio Sonatas for organ in Chamber Ensemble Setting (EUCD 69, Euridice, Norway) (with other instrumentalists)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Late organ Works (2 CDs) (EUCD 71, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Dritter Teil der Clavierübung (2 CDs) (EUCD 72, Euridice, Norway)

I see that info on Wikipedia and I can find references to it on the internets in his biographies, but I can't find evidence for the label or the recordings...

[Mandryka]

I see that info on Wikipedia and I can find references to it on the internets in his biographies, but I can't find evidence for the label or the recordings...

Well play them, buy them and play them. What sort of evidence are you after? I mean, I've heard some of them. Or maybe go to see the record company at Prinsens Gate 113,  Bodø, Norway.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Well play them, buy them and play them. What sort of evidence are you after? I mean, I've heard some of them. Or maybe go to see the record company at Prinsens Gate 113,  Bodø, Norway.

I'm after any evidence whatsoever. I want to know they exist. A link, a sign on Amazon or some online shop... anything. It's not that I don't believe you, but I can't effin' find them. And I'm not going to Bodø to buy a CD.

More to the point, if this is not in the least bit available outside of Bodø, I can't well include it in my Bach Organ Survey. There's no information on the instruments out there, no cover art... nothing. How would I play them if I can't find even a trace of their existence?

[kishnevi]

Five of them are listed as MP3 albums on Amazon US
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A163856011%2Ck%3AHans-Ola+Ericsson%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A625150011%2Cn%3A%21624868011%2Cn%3A624926011&bbn=624868011&keywords=Hans-Ola+Ericsson&ie=UTF8&qid=1495833246&rnid=624868011

If that link does not work, do an Amazon search on his name in Digital Music.

ETA
But Amazon does not list them as CDs. Perhaps they are available only as downloads?

[Mandryka]

I'm pretty sure they're download only.

[Marc]

I'm pretty sure they're download only.

Yeah.
Me thinks so, too.

Like here:

https://shop.klicktrack.com/artist/88458

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Ah, that's helpful. Thanks.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Maybe he's working on an integral.
Label: Euridice, Norway.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Early Organ Works (EUCD 66, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Chorale Partitas (2 CDs) (EUCD 67, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orgelbüchlein (2 CDs) (EUCD 68, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Trio Sonatas for organ in Chamber Ensemble Setting (EUCD 69, Euridice, Norway) (with other instrumentalists)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Late organ Works (2 CDs) (EUCD 71, Euridice, Norway)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Dritter Teil der Clavierübung (2 CDs) (EUCD 72, Euridice, Norway)

Available on Spotify as well.

[Mr. Minnow]

The other one to seriously think about is Walcha (Alkmaar) -- I forgot about it earlier, I just think it' s so rewarding you should get it NOW.

Is this the Walcha set you mean?



I know Walcha is very highly regarded so he was very much on my radar. Unfortunately the above set is now expensive - about twice the price of Koopman's set - and at 12 discs compared to 16 each for Koopman and Foccroulle and 17 for Fagius, presumably Walcha's set is some way short of complete. MDT don't have it listed at all so maybe the high Amazon price is an indication it's now quite hard to find. If so, hopefully it's just temporarily out of print and will be reissued sooner rather than later at a more affordable price. I'd certainly be tempted should that happen. 

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

The Walcha was my first complete set. The performances are excellent, if very sober. The SQ is not great, and I find the organs and registrations rather dull compared to other performers (Alain, Hurford, Heiller, et al.)

Any thoughts on Isabelle Demers?

[Mandryka]

Is this the Walcha set you mean?



I know Walcha is very highly regarded so he was very much on my radar. Unfortunately the above set is now expensive - about twice the price of Koopman's set - and at 12 discs compared to 16 each for Koopman and Foccroulle and 17 for Fagius, presumably Walcha's set is some way short of complete. MDT don't have it listed at all so maybe the high Amazon price is an indication it's now quite hard to find. If so, hopefully it's just temporarily out of print and will be reissued sooner rather than later at a more affordable price. I'd certainly be tempted should that happen.

Yes  I guess CD versions are becoming increasingly scarce, I expect it's downloadable very cheaply.

[Mandryka]

The Walcha was my first complete set. The performances are excellent, if very sober. The SQ is not great, and I find the organs and registrations rather dull compared to other performers (Alain, Hurford, Heiller, et al.)

Any thoughts on Isabelle Demers?

I don't agree that the performances are sober, on the contrary I think they are thrilling. Neither do I have a problem about his registrations, which always seem very well chosen to me. The SQ of the Alkmaar recordings (as opposed to the earlier ones) is fine.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Is this the Walcha set you mean?


Bach, Organ Works
Walcha (stereo)
DG/Archiv

I know Walcha is very highly regarded so he was very much on my radar. Unfortunately the above set is now expensive - about twice the price of Koopman's set - and at 12 discs compared to 16 each for Koopman and Foccroulle and 17 for Fagius, presumably Walcha's set is some way short of complete. MDT don't have it listed at all so maybe the high Amazon price is an indication it's now quite hard to find. If so, hopefully it's just temporarily out of print and will be reissued sooner rather than later at a more affordable price. I'd certainly be tempted should that happen.

Fortunately, Walcha is plodding and unimaginative and overrated because he was the first - twice - to record these works - and blind to boot. For a while I had always wondered why organists tended to speak derisively of him, but the longer I am around the two sets of Helmut Walcha, the less I like to listen to it, myself. With the exception of his Art of the Fugue (DG's first stereo recording ever) which is actually quite exceptional. In any case, I'd never recommend Walcha over Koopman. In any case, the set seems to hover around 50,-, depending where you are located... used copy of the older version are also available for about that price. (Here) But as you can see directly above me, there are plenty of wildly differing feelings about Walcha among the Bach-on-organ-loving GMGers here. 



But perhaps I'll put it in today, to check if I'm not being a bit too harsh.

[Mandryka]

plodding

I just find it really incomprehensible that you can use this word for him. Slow he isn't. Stiff certainly, but there's so much momentum that he can get away with it a lot of the time. Especially in joyful music.

unimaginative

Equally incomprehensible, given the originality of the vision. I'd say the registrations too. But it's true that I find the style a bit dated and a more expressive approach to the Chorals is better I think. Not necessarily Koopman though.

.  organists tended to speak derisively of him,

Who are you thinking of?

the longer I am around the two sets of Helmut Walcha, the less I like to listen to it, myself.

I have had the opposite response to the Alkmaar in fact. I don't know the earlier set so well.

One little side note, although in my memory the sound of the Alkmaar was fine, this morning, playing the CU 3 from that set, I can see the sound is not as good as I had thought. But it's not like Schweitzer or anything like that, it's totally listenable.

(Interesting to compare Koopman and Walcha in 678 or 680)

With the exception of his Art of the Fugue (DG's first stereo recording ever) which is actually quite exceptional.

It would be interesting to know what he's doing that works in AoF for you that you don't find in the trio sonatas, the canonic variations, CU 3, the Leipzig Chorales, Orgelbuchlein. I agree that AoF is a high point by the way.

I'd never recommend Walcha over Koopman.

I wouldn't want to be without Koopman's Orgelbuchlein.

[Marc]

[...]
One little side note, although in my memory the sound of the Alkmaar was fine, this morning, playing the CU 3 from that set, I can see the sound is not as good as I had thought. But it's not like Schweitzer or anything like that, it's totally listenable.
[...]

This (2nd) Walcha set isn't just Alkmaar, but also the Silbermann Organ of the St.-Pierre-le-Jeune in Strasbourg.
The Alkmaar pieces were recorded earlier (1959-1963). Strasbourg sounds better, but Alkmaar has got the more expressive organ IMO.

[Mandryka]

I've been listening to Purcell suites, old recordings, one by Thurston Dart and another one by Kenneth Gilbert on the Vaudry at the Victoria and Albert London. Anyway, maybe this is a stupid idea, but there's something about the classicism and energy of these performances which makes me think of Walcha at his best. I like Dart and Gilbert a lot. 

Not to be confused with Gilbert's second Purcell recording, which is more expressive, but not necessarily better.

[prémont]

I don't think Membran in its existence ever licensed anything properly.

Where do you know this from, How reliable is your source?

Thanks, also, for the hints about other cycles out there. Some of these are very well hidden. Kei Koito is on my radar, since I have all her Bach so far. Molardi's was coming out on Brilliant ... but has that stopped? Where do I find traces of Tomasz Adam Nowak's cycle? David Goode is no my radar; the rest, I think, are new to me and I'll be sure to stay tuned. I'll try to get the Kåre Nordstoga recordings ASAP, seeing that they are on Challenge.

Tomasz Adam Nowak here:

https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/262-9624948-6964243?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=tomasz+adam+Nowak

and here:

https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/260-3011317-1537053?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=tomasz+nowak

This is one of the few complete sets I have passed by, based on listening to clips. Rigid playing, modern uninteresting organ(s).

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Nowak-Tomasz-Adam.htm

Molardi's cycle is complete in the latest edition of the Brilliant big Bach box.

[prémont]

I'm pretty sure they're download only.

Yes, and if we include H O Ericsson, we also ought to include James Kibbie, even if his recordings can be downloaded for free.