J.S. Bach on the Organ

[Marc]

Are you talking from the US to the Netherlands?

Customs opens only what they think may contain items of value exceeding "small purchases". This is not EU-harmonized, to my knowledge, but I reckon it is similar among countries. Officially exempted from tax are items of value below somewhere between 20 and 30 Euros (including shipping, insanely)--though there seems an unofficial agreement not to act on items below 40 Euros (excluding shipping). There are also notably greater liberties made during Christmas time.

I told this story before, if I remember it well: I had to pay an extra amount of import tax only once. It was an Amazon.com item, which was stored in Germany btw, and when it arrived in NL I had to pay that extra amount. The post guy said: it's a matter of (bad) luck: how secure the Custom officers were working at Schiphol Airport, et cetera. It was a box set below 40 Euros, but I'm not sure if it was around December last year.

But the items from Raven were sent to me without any problems. I read once or twice at Dutch websites that if a postage package says Amazon, then Custom officers would react as if they had consumed a dozen cups of coffee.

It's bloody protectionism anyway!
(That's my opinion, which I share.)

And now I'm off to bed, with Joan Lippincott, errr .... organ music, by Bach.

[Antoine Marchand]

As to Joan Lippincott´s degree of deepness I can not tell. Have not heard her. I have considered acquiring her Triosonatas, Toccatas and Clavierübung III, but the CDs are not easy to find in Europe. You may know a source though?

In my experience CD Universe has been an excellent store to purchase those discs by American organists (Ritchie, Lippincott, Rackich): http://www.cduniverse.com/classical.asp?performer=Joan+Lippincott&exact=1

[Marc]

In my experience CD Universe has been an excellent store to purchase those discs by American organists (Ritchie, Lippincott, Rackich): http://www.cduniverse.com/classical.asp?performer=Joan+Lippincott&exact=1

I'm still wide awake!

Antoine, it's about online stores in Europe, because of those [censored] import taxes!

[jlaurson]

It's bloody protectionism anyway!
(That's my opinion, which I share.)

You're absolutely right. It's protectionism, it inhibits trade and thus wealth creation. It's a narrow-minded but annoyingly stubborn hangover from mercantilist times that costs, not protects jobs. To add insult to injury, it costs the tax payer more money to pay customs officials' pay (and the involved admin. and logistics costs) than they get back from charging tax (VAT and/or custom/import taxes) to non-commercial buyers. Don't get me started. Oh, wait. Too late. You did. I could rant about this at great length. Oh, wait... I did that, too:

http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/15/trade-free-pieler-oped-cx_gap_1016trade.html
http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/free-trade-is-truly-progressive
etc. et al.

[Antoine Marchand]

Antoine, it's about online stores in Europe, because of those [censored] import taxes!

Yes, I understand that, but it's a fact that European stores don't import those discs and CD Universe is rather cheap.

[Que]

This morning, I've been revisiting this disc:



Andrea Marcon plays the wonderful historical organ of the Klosterkirche Muri, Aargau, Switzerland, built by Thomas Schott 1619-1630.

And I don't get it: why gives Marcon's issue "Ohrduf, Lüneburg, Arnstadt", played on the same organ BTW, me a splitting headache and is this such a wonderful recording?  I mean, Marcon's style is still big, sturdy and digging, but way not as relentless and ponderous, more airy and more moments of subtlety and poetry. And considerably more up tempo as well!

Yes, all in all: Marcon at his best. Get it. Still one issue by him in this series to go BTW.

Q

[Bulldog]

This morning, I've been revisiting this disc:



Andrea Marcon plays the wonderful historical organ of the Klosterkirche Muri, Aargau, Switzerland, built by Thomas Schott 1619-1630.

And I don't get it: why gives Marcon's issue "Ohrduf, Lüneburg, Arnstadt", played on the same organ BTW, me a splitting headache and is this such a wonderful recording?  I mean, Marcon's style is still big, sturdy and digging, but way not as relentless and ponderous, more airy and more moments of subtlety and poetry. And considerably more up tempo as well!

Yes, all in all: Marcon at his best. Get it. Still one issue by him in this series to go BTW.

Q

Might be that the music on each program is a factor.  As it happens, I definitely prefer the set that gives you a headache.

[Que]

Might be that the music on each program is a factor.  As it happens, I definitely prefer the set that gives you a headache.

[Que]

Well, why not make it a Andrea Marcon sequel!



Again on the marvelous historical organ of the Klosterkirche Muri, Aargau, Switzerland, built by Thomas Schott 1619-1630.

Some famous works on this one. As mentioned before Marcon's style is quite big, sturdy and digging. In the disc opener, the Präludium und Fugue BWV 543 Marcon "pulls out all the stops" with overpowering result. Marcon's playing has loads of character and is well articulated. Again, he plays nicely up tempo. Another winner IMO.

Don, I wonder if the main problem with his Ohrdruf, Lüneburg, Arnstadt-set was the tempo, and the (to my ears) ponderousnes and lack of articulation logical results of that. Of course you yourself liked the result, but why would he play those earlier works so slow?

Q

[Bulldog]

Well, why not make it a Andrea Marcon sequel!



Again on the marvelous historical organ of the Klosterkirche Muri, Aargau, Switzerland, built by Thomas Schott 1619-1630.

Some famous works on this one. As mentioned before Marcon's style is quite big, sturdy and digging. In the disc opener, the Präludium und Fugue BWV 543 Marcon "pulls out all the stops" with overpowering result. Marcon's playing has loads of character and is well articulated. Again, he plays nicely up tempo. Another winner IMO.

Don, I wonder if the main problem with his Ohrdruf, Lüneburg, Arnstadt-set was the tempo, and the (to my ears) ponderousnes and lack of articulation logical results of that. Of course you yourself liked the result, but why would he play those earlier works so slow?

Q

Because the Bulldog likes it that way.

Seriously, I didn't find the tempos "so slow", and I'm confident Marcon felt the same.  Although his "New Ideas" and "Heyday" discs are mighty fine, I think Marcon was more at the top of his game with the early works set.  Also, I tend to find that the music on the early works set lent itself more to the severe and powerful approach used by Marcon.

[Marc]

Listened this afternoon to the first disc of Marcon's Ohrdruf et al set, and to some parts of the second one.

Impressions:
First: bold and majestic playing of the free works. Maybe too little flamboyance in this young Bach works. No problems with headaches, though. I listened to it with headphones at very modest volume and had a nice time.
Second: very nice and lovely registrations of the chorales, which caused absolutely no headaches at all.
Third: the organ is kinda special, with rather agressive reed stops, but it wouldn't surprise me if Bach himself would have liked it that way, though I realize this is a risky thing to 'claim'.
I remember listening to a Greatest Hits disc (Denon) with the same organ (organist: Heinz Balli), and I myself liked this 17th century instrument from the very beginning.
Fourth: the only thing I miss in Marcon's playing is a certain amount of empathy. Meaning: when I listen f.i. to his chorale playing, it doesn't really move me, despite the wonderful registrations. The fact that he's bold and straightforward doesn't bother me at all, but he's too aloof to deserve (for this moment) a steady place among my 'favourites'.

Overall: a nice issue, and definitely recommandable IMO.

[prémont]

Well, Isoir is not precisely the most praised organist in this forum.

I have read on other forum descriptions of Isoir's style ("slightly 'larmoyant', too weepy or at least overtly romantic", "the egomanic Andre Isoir"  , etc.), but I feel his style as very difficult to define. I don't know the reason why, but I have frequently felt that adjectives like "psychedelic" or "lysergic" ( ) would be suitable for some parts of his performances, like in some rock music of the sixties and early seventies ... and I like those parts.

Yes, his style is difficult to define, maybe because he hasn´t got a definite style. The word "egomanic"is very well put.  And I find him more earth-bound than overly romantic, and in my ears he doesn´t offer much more than a hurried run through, and he is even sometimes a bit sloppy. He plays as if he says to himself, that he just is going to show those "dummies" that he (technically) is perfectly able to play this music. I recently listened to his BWV 543 and agree that the prelude has got a "lysergic" character, but this distorted way is not how I think the music should be played. The CDs recorded on the Gabler organ in Weingarten are IMO the best of the set, probably because the large organ and opulent acoustics prevent him from playing in his preferred way.

[Marc]

It's been some time since I listened to Isoir, but I remember enjoying the Third Clavier-Übung (Gabler-organ Weingarten), his first recording of the Toccatas at the Ahrend organ (Aurich, France) and his rendering of Die Kunst der Fuge.
The latter not being part of the integral box set, though.

In general, I found his integral rather uneven. But I remember he could be very poetic sometimes in the chorales.

[Antoine Marchand]

http://www.youtube.com/v/jphFYgijiuI

Bach - The Art of Fugue (two CDs and a DVD boxed set)
George Ritchie
ORGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CATALOGUE

A brief description:

Following their very successful multimedia pack about organs in the Groningen area, Fugue State Films
http://www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/projects.html
have just completed three new projects, "The Elusive English Organ" and "Virtuoso Music", twentieth century music from Bridlington Priory, which I haven't seen yet, and "The Art of Fugue / Desert Fugue" which I received a few days ago.

George Ritchie and Christopher Wolff discuss the Art of Fugue, followed by a discussion with two organ builders about the sort of organ best suited for the music, which, they conclude, to their satisfaction (and I am ready to be convinced) is an organ of the kind which they built for the Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in the desert town of Scottsdale, Arizona. George Ritchie speaks of how he was a student of Walcha. He had prepared a chorale prelude in four voices, and Walcha told him to omit the soprano line, to play the alto and bass lines, while singing the tenor line.

It's therefore not surprising that on the two accompanying CDs he plays the 14th Fugue in its incomplete version and then plays it again with Walcha's completion. Christopher Wolff argues that the Fugue was not incomplete - when composing a fugue with four subjects, and two of them inverted in the final section, he could only have done it by working out the closing section first, so it was not "unfinished" but rather the finish was written first and got lost before publication.

The DVD ends with a demonstration and explanation of each of the contrapuncti, in total nearly two hours. Any talk like this has to face the question of what level it should be aimed at. It's my guess that the readers of this forum will not have any difficulty following it, and may perhaps learn a thing or two. My only criticism is that when a few bars of music are shown on the screen and attention is drawn to one bar, the bar numbers displayed often begin AFTER the barline at the end of the bar and continue under the next bar. It's very off-putting until you realise that it is the way that it has been done.

The Art of Fugue is a problem for any recording studio, as it won't fit onto a single CD, but would be very sparse on its own if spread over two CDs. We therefore get, as well, several chorale preludes, some canons and the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch. The accompanying booklet gives all of the registrations used for the Art of Fugue, but not for the extras.

Very good value at the introductory price of £24.99 (and I didn't get any commission for writing this review).

David Hitchin

[Marc]

Dear Mr. Marchand,

Thanks a bundle for this informative story!

I already planned to buy the 'Groningen' boxset, and, wallett willing, will do so next summer .... because there will be a possibility to buy it via the Groningen Organ Society, which (a.o.) sells their cd's after organ concerts in the Martinikerk.

The Ritchie/Wolff package is tempting, too. Wolff is a scholar who's able to make difficult things sound rather easy to understand, and Ritchie is a very good Bach organist IMO.

OTOH: I already have a large amount of Künste der Fuge, played at organs. I'm more in need for some harpsichord stuff, to be honest.
But, who knows: wallett willing (again), some day Ritchie & Wolff will be mine, too.

[Opus106]

OTOH: I already have a large amount of Künste der Fuge, played at organs.

It's good that this topic was brought up at this time -- do you have any recommendations (apart from Walcha (Archiv)), and especially played on historical organs? I recently found a 70s recording by Herbert Tachezi, and the only "review" I have come across is a little bit cryptic.

[Scarpia]

It's good that this topic was brought up at this time -- do you have any recommendations (apart from Walcha (Archiv)), and especially played on historical organs? I recently found a 70s recording by Herbert Tachezi, and the only "review" I have come across is a little bit cryptic.

I have that one on LP.  I tend to like it, but it is played on a very small chamber organ, he sort of thing you could have in your apartment, if I recall correctly.

[Marc]

It's good that this topic was brought up at this time -- do you have any recommendations (apart from Walcha (Archiv)), and especially played on historical organs? I recently found a 70s recording by Herbert Tachezi, and the only "review" I have come across is a little bit cryptic.

Yes, cryptic message. Probably meant to advise those who do not know the composition: don't quit listening after 30 seconds .... the best is yet to come! (Or something like that.)

I don't know this AoF-issue by Tachezi, but he's one of my favourite organists .... only if basso continuo playing is concerned.

As a soloist I don't appreciate him that much: my impression is that he's mostly rather stiff, and that he lacks a certain amount of intensity.
I have one Teldec/Telefunken sampler with some 'hits' and also a Mozart issue .... but I don't think there's much more Tachezi to enter the house.

This is one of my faves (Lionel Rogg / EMI), which is a nicely varied (both bold and poetic) interpretation, though not on a historic organ:

http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Vivaldi-Concertos/dp/B000TDGAR0/ref=dm_ap_alb1

Rogg also offers both an unfinished AND finished final fugue (like the Ritchie DVD/CD).

On historic organs .... it's difficult to advise, because I think my fave there is Bram Beekman (Lindenberg label), which is alas OOP. But if you want a good, solid HIP-approach on a historic instrument, then you might want to give Gerhard Weinberger a try.
In general, I would say that Weinberger has given us one of the most interesting Bach organ cycles of the last decades .... not always entirely to my likings, but IMO never dull or completely 'besides the point'.
Here's a link to the last volume of his integral, the AoF, including the world premiere recording of the Choral-fantasy which was discovered in 2008 (Bernard Foccroulle followed a few months later):

http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Choralfantasie-Nicht-Fugue/dp/B001AUKIZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1268772447&sr=1-1

[Antoine Marchand]

Dear Mr. Marchand,

Thanks a bundle for this informative story!

My pleasure, sir!

OTOH: I already have a large amount of Künste der Fuge, played at organs. I'm more in need for some harpsichord stuff, to be honest.

Don't forget to check out the AoF by Sergio Vartolo (and his daughter) on Naxos.

[Opus106]

I have that one on LP.  I tend to like it, but it is played on a very small chamber organ, he sort of thing you could have in your apartment, if I recall correctly.

Really? The pictures here -- if it is indeed those of the pipes of organ at BremenOberneuland built by Ahrend and Brunzema -- seem to show a larger instrument.

I don't know this AoF-issue by Tachezi, but he's one of my favourite organists .... only if basso continuo playing is concerned.

As a soloist I don't appreciate him that much: my impression is that he's mostly rather stiff, and that he lacks a certain amount of intensity.
I have one Teldec/Telefunken sampler with some 'hits' and also a Mozart issue .... but I don't think there's much more Tachezi to enter the house.

I also saw a 3-CD set of organ music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. That seems tempting, however, given that it's less than $10.

This is one of my faves (Lionel Rogg / EMI), which is a nicely varied (both bold and poetic) interpretation, though not on a historic organ:


http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Vivaldi-Concertos/dp/B000TDGAR0/ref=dm_ap_alb1

Rogg also offers both an unfinished AND finished final fugue (like the Ritchie DVD/CD).

On historic organs .... it's difficult to advise, because I think my fave there is Bram Beekman (Lindenberg label), which is alas OOP. But if you want a good, solid HIP-approach on a historic instrument, then you might want to give Gerhard Weinberger a try.
In general, I would say that Weinberger has given us one of the most interesting Bach organ cycles of the last decades .... not always entirely to my likings, but IMO never dull or completely 'besides the point'.
Here's a link to the last volume of his integral, the AoF, including the world premiere recording of the Choral-fantasy which was discovered in 2008 (Bernard Foccroulle followed a few months later):

http://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Choralfantasie-Nicht-Fugue/dp/B001AUKIZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1268772447&sr=1-1

Thanks for those recommendations.