J.S. Bach on the Organ

[bioluminescentsquid]

Try the one at Ansbach maybe, that instrument is anything but colorless

... hard to make up for colorless playing.

That being said I like his BWV 564 at Hamburg, but that's just because of the superficial thrill of all the 32's and stuff.

[prémont]

Here's a 652 I like, just to make it fun I've made it a blind test!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fcAs7WkavG64RUs-vUFMLS2AlNeXCr_d/view?usp=sharing

Most organists do not know what to do with this long and somewhat monotonous choral prelude and therefore rush through it to get on to the next piece. Your blind listening version is exceptionally calm and meditative and rewarding to listen to. It's easier to say who the organist isn't than to say who it is. Once I have excluded all those I know - and there are many - there is no one left. Therefore, I do not think I have ever heard this version before. As to the performance style of the organist I need more different works from his hands and feet to say anything about it.

[Mandryka]

Most organists do not know what to do with this long and somewhat monotonous choral prelude and therefore rush through it to get on to the next piece. Your blind listening version is exceptionally calm and meditative and rewarding to listen to. It's easier to say who the organist isn't than to say who it is. Once I have excluded all those I know - and there are many - there is no one left. Therefore, I do not think I have ever heard this version before. As to the performance style of the organist I need more different works from his hands and feet to say anything about it.

The answer is in post 3297!

[prémont]

The answer is in post 3297!

Overly cryptic. The only hint is that the organist may be Dutch, which already was likely. But in the Netherlands, each house has its own resident organist, so the possibilities are legion.

My experience is that BWV 652 only gets recorded by organists who make a full integral or intend to do so, and this may limit the possibilities as to who it is, but this is also true of more Dutch organists whose recordings are almost impossible to get hold of because they are made by small local Dutch labels, eg. Cor Ardesch and Pieter van Dijk. I have no particular impression of neither of these two.

[Mandryka]

Overly cryptic. The only hint is that the organist may be Dutch, which already was likely. But in the Netherlands, each house has its own resident organist, so the possibilities are legion.

My experience is that BWV 652 only gets recorded by organists who make a full integral or intend to do so, and this may limit the possibilities as to who it is, but this is also true of more Dutch organists whose recordings are almost impossible to get hold of because they are made by small local Dutch labels, eg. Cor Ardesch and Pieter van Dijk. I have no particular impression of neither of these two.

Wiersma!

[prémont]

Wiersma!

Ooh, well. I wasn't aware that this was one of the few Leipzig chorales he had recorded and I haven't listened to it since I posted it some years ago.

On the other hand I can tell that BWV 652 was recorded on the Hinsz-Schnitger-Freytag organ of the Hervormde Kerk, Leens, NL in 1999. The organ is an 8 feet organ which has got 27 stops on two manuals and pedal tuned a half note above "normal" pitch and was restored by the van Vulpen brothers in 1968. The used stops for BWV 652 are (according to Wiersma's notes in the booklet):

HW:  Roerfluit 8' , Speelfluit 4' and Vox Humana 8'
RP:  Fluitdous 8', Holpijp 4, Nazard 3' and Dulciaan 8'
P: Bourdon 16' and Prestant 8'
Tremulant

[Selig]

Ooh, well. I wasn't aware that this was one of the few Leipzig chorales he had recorded and I haven't listened to it since I posted it some years ago.

On the other hand I can tell that BWV 652 was recorded on the Hinsz-Schnitger-Freytag organ of the Hervormde Kerk, Leens, NL in 1999. The organ is an 8 feet organ which has got 27 stops on two manuals and pedal tuned a half note above "normal" pitch and was restored by the van Vulpen brothers in 1968. The used stops for BWV 652 are (according to Wiersma's notes in the booklet):

HW:  Roerfluit 8' , Speelfluit 4' and Vox Humana 8'
RP:  Fluitdous 8', Holpijp 4, Nazard 3' and Dulciaan 8'
P: Bourdon 16' and Prestant 8'
Tremulant

Thanks for posting the stops! You are lucky to have this difficult to find CD. I had posted the name in beige color to not spoil the fun for other guessers, but the conventional choice may be the easier-to-see white 

Interesting observation about organists only recording this chorale when the "integral" requires it. The only non-cycle example I could think of was Robert Clark playing the Brombaugh organ in Springfield Illinois.

[prémont]

Thanks for posting the stops! You are lucky to have this difficult to find CD. I had posted the name in beige color to not spoil the fun for other guessers, but the conventional choice may be the easier-to-see white 

Interesting observation about organists only recording this chorale when the "integral" requires it. The only non-cycle example I could think of was Robert Clark playing the Brombaugh organ in Springfield Illinois.

I used the word integral to point to a complete set of Leipzig Chorales, not to a complete Bach organ music set. I admit I was unclear. There are many who have recorded all the Leipzig chorales as a set (eg. Ghielmi, van Laar, O'Donnel and Bouchard), but if individual chorales are recorded it's always the most popular of these, and BWV 652 has never been that popular.         

[Mandryka]

Well Kooiman Coronata joins the ranks of organists who have no idea what to do with 652.

[prémont]

Well Kooiman Coronata joins the ranks of organists who have no idea what to do with 652.

But it is a difficult piece to bring to life. Long and homogenous, some would say monotonous. I agree that Wiersma makes the best of it, but from the top of my head I can't think of others who make me want a relisten.

[vers la flamme]

I would love to have a complete recording of all the Trio Sonatas on organ. Does such a thing exist?

[JBS]

I would love to have a complete recording of all the Trio Sonatas on organ. Does such a thing exist?

Amazon lists a few. The names I recognize are  Simon Preston, E Power Biggs, Ton Koopman, and Christopher Herrick.
I have Herrick's Neuminster Chorales CD, but the rest of his cycle was OOP by the time I discovered it, about 20 years ago.

[Mandryka]

I would love to have a complete recording of all the Trio Sonatas on organ. Does such a thing exist?

I think all of these are tasty performances  in decent sound on decent organs,  and are available as individual discs. That'll keep you busy.

Simon Reichert
Wolfgang Rübsam (Naxos, my favourite, by far)
Kei Koito
Rainer Goede
Hubert Meister
Christopher Herrick
Helmut Walcha
Marie Claire Alain
Ton Koopman
Wolfgang Stockmeier
Daniel Chorzempa

[Jo498]

I would love to have a complete recording of all the Trio Sonatas on organ. Does such a thing exist?

John Butt on harmonia mundi (some of their cheapo series with a colorful cover) was the one that made me appreciate the pieces when I didn't care much for organ sounds. (My first recording and one I still like is Power Biggs on pedal harpsichord (Sony)). Since then I have come to appreciate also slower and more organ like or traditional recordings; the music is really hard to destroy, I think.

[prémont]

I think all of these are tasty performances  in decent sound on decent organs,  and are available as individual discs. That'll keep you busy.

Simon Reichert
Wolfgang Rübsam (Naxos, my favourite, by far)
Kei Koito
Rainer Goede
Hubert Meister
Christopher Herrick
Helmut Walcha
Marie Claire Alain
Ton Koopman
Wolfgang Stockmeier
Daniel Chorzempa

Nice list. Good to see Simon Reichert on the list. He ought to be better known.

I feel tempted to add:

Simon Preston
Heinrich Gurtner
Joan Lippincott

[aukhawk]

Kare Nordstoga

[prémont]

Kare Nordstoga

First set (Simax) or second set (LAWO) or both?

[Mandryka]

I dug out some old friends last night, with great pleasure. One was, for obvious reasons, Daniel Chorzempa's trio sonatas. The other, for less obvious reasons, was Jens Christensen's AoF.

[prémont]

I dug out some old friends last night, with great pleasure. One was, for obvious reasons, Daniel Chorzempa's trio sonatas. The other, for less obvious reasons, was Jens Christensen's AoF.

Jens E. Christensen's AoF is like no other. I have to be in the right mood to listen to it all at once.

Concerning old friends: I would like to add Bjørn Boysen's trio sonatas to the list

[staxomega]

Speaking of old friends I was listening to Gerd Zacher play AoF earlier this afternoon. Among my favorite JSB organ albums.