Can you have too much Bach?

[Contratrombone64]

Most amusingly, I performed a "stock take" of my CD collection and discovered that I own three complete organ works of Bach on CD (not one of them has the exact same number of individual pieces ... such is the nature of the beast):

Helmut Walcha (my favourite)
Knud Vad (a little known Dane who has remarkable insight, IMHO)
George Ritchie (all on wonderful American organs)

Anyone like to compare notes?

this is not an ego trip, truly!! just being curious

[Corno Dolce]

Hi Contratrombone64,

Imho one can never have too much of JSBach. He's *Da Man*!!! With music for all seasons and reasons. Insofar as his organ music is concerned, I have the Helmut Walcha and the Jean Guillou versions of the complete organ works of JSBach. Between those two I often find myself interpretational wise. Ton Koopman takes care of the cantatas, masses, and oratorios for me. Jordi Savall for the *orchestral* JSBach and Joao Carlos Martins for the keyboard works of JSBach.

JSBach does *perfect music* - only one other does too - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of course, there are other composers whose music I simply adore but since the original question was about JSBach, I limited myself to only one other composer.

Cheers,

Corno Dolce

[Krummhorn]

I agree with Corno Dolce ... never tire of playing JS Bach myself either, although I do also enjoy, with equal enthusiasm, the works of Buxtehude and Pachelbel as well.

[tom]

Most amusingly, I performed a "stock take" of my CD collection and discovered that I own three complete organ works of Bach on CD (not one of them has the exact same number of individual pieces ... such is the nature of the beast):

Helmut Walcha (my favourite)
Knud Vad (a little known Dane who has remarkable insight, IMHO)
George Ritchie (all on wonderful American organs)

Anyone like to compare notes?

this is not an ego trip, truly!! just being curious

I, too, own the Knud Vad recording, and (I think we discussed this before, the two of us) while I do enjoy much of it, I strongly favour the recording made by the Swede Hans Fagius who is an international concert organist and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, and who has performed 17 of 18 concerts in Sweden and Denmark this year featuring all of Bachs organ works, culminating next week with a perfomance of Dritter Teil der Klavierübung. I have attended several of the concerts, each of them breathtaking!

[acc]

Bach? Mehr!

[Contratrombone64]

Opps - I forgot - I also own the Hans Fagius ... yes, his interpretations are wonderful. I forgot this because it came as part of an enormous "complete music of Bach" on CD.

[marval]

Can you have too much Bach, IMHO no. Because he composed so much beautiful music, to suit all tastes. I like many other composers too, but I can always go back to Bach, especially his organ music and his Brandenberg concertos.

[tom]

Opps - I forgot - I also own the Hans Fagius ... yes, his interpretations are wonderful. I forgot this because it came as part of an enormous "complete music of Bach" on CD.

Might be the same collection I own, 160 CD's worth of wonderful music!

[Contratrombone64]

tom - it's a huge blue box with ugly typesetting and a nice engraving of Bach. The cantatas are all played by an "authentic" instrument ensemble from the Netherlands. Some of it I don't like, but Fagius' organ playing is wonderful and those noisy old Swedish organs make me smile as they whistle and fart.

[methodistgirl]

I don't think you can have too much Bach. The top musicians at my
church has about five different Bach organ books in a stack. I only
have the toccata & fugue in sheet music, recordings of his Jesu joy of
man's desire, one of the Brandenburgs,toccata & fugue,lover's concerto,
and O secred head how wounded. That is all I have. I envy Paul and
Cynthia Harris for having all of the Bach books. I will even ask for one,
but they won't let me have one. Oh well! That's life!
judy tooley

[zhonghe]

Might be the same collection I own, 160 CD's worth of wonderful music!

160cd,What a enormous collection,maybe nobody can listen to it thoroughly.

[Argoth]

160cd,What a enormous collection,maybe nobody can listen to it thoroughly.

But doesn't the complete works of Bach number around that much of CD's?

[Rachmaninoff]

Might be the same collection I own, 160 CD's worth of wonderful music!

It's more than all CDs I own!

[Krummhorn]

I don't think you can have too much Bach. The top musicians at my church has about five different Bach organ books in a stack . . . I will even ask for one, but they won't let me have one.

Hi Judy,

You can check out this site: JS Bach's Organ Works. They are in "pdf" format, so all you need is an online printer and they are free for the taking. If the library doesn't allow these to be printed there, perhaps they would let you download these onto a CD or other removable media and print them from disk at home. Another possibility is that your church may have internet access - you might be able to work out a "deal" with the church office to get these printed. Food for thought.

But doesn't the complete works of Bach number around that much of CD's?

If we are referring just to JS Bach's organ works, I have those on LP (18 vinyl disks), so in CD form they may occupy 9 or 10. But for the complete works of Bach, the number could be staggering.

[Argoth]

If we are referring just to JS Bach's organ works, I have those on LP (18 vinyl disks), so in CD form they may occupy 9 or 10. But for the complete works of Bach, the number could be staggering.

Hi Krummhorn, yes, I was referring to the complete works indeed. That was from a count I did of the complete works of Bach on CD at my uni library last year. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was well over 120, and I'm sure there were no repeated works there. As a college student, I don't even want to imagine the cost of a complete set. I did, however, copy some of the CD's to my hard drive for personal listening purposes. I'm sure that's not legal, and I generally try to ensure that I buy CDs where possible when I have enough spare cash to do so, but I think preservation and enjoyment of art is more important at this point (or it's with that in mind that I did this).