Organ Music of J.S. Bach - General thread

[Marc]

I was inspired by this thread, with an arrangement of the glorious Christmas song "O Come, all ye Faithful":

http://www.magle.dk/music-forums/14386-komt-allen-tezamen-all.html

Here's two Bach pieces on the same beautiful Bader/Timpe organ of the Walburgiskerk in Zutphen, NL. Organist is Klaas Stok.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yz7azt7l27vlvkw
(BWV 645 "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme")

http://www.mediafire.com/?d6bhzzbhhn70jwh
(BWV 547 Prelude & Fugue in C-Major)

Enjoy!

 

[Ghekorg7 (Ret)]

Thanks Marc !

Always with something beautiful to offer.
645 is Great !
and..... 547 too :-D

 

[Corno Dolce]

I believe JSBach to be the very first Jazz Musician - He "improvised" to and around the tunes........

 

[GoneBaroque]

J. S. Bach's Toccata in F, BWV 540 played by Dutch organist Willeke Smits on the lovely sounding French romantic style Maarschalkerweerd organ of the St. Willibrord Church.Take note of her unusual shoes.

 

[Marc]

J. S. Bach's Toccata in F, BWV 540 played by Dutch organist Willeke Smits on the lovely sounding French romantic style Maarschalkerweerd organ of the St. Willibrord Church. Take note of her unusual shoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHr0i7GnhzA

BWV 540 rocks!

In this specific case though, I have to admit I'm not the 'romantic' kinda guy.
I heard Bernard Bartelink play BWV 542 on another Maarschalkerweerd organ a couple of years ago (Groningen, Sint Jozefkerk) and had that same ambivalent feeling. It takes me a few minutes to get used to a sound like this in Bach.

I'm certainly 'capable' of appreciating a big organ sound though, but IMHO the large baroque organs sound more spicy. Even the more 'sweeter' sounding Andreas & Johann Andreas Silbermann organs in France.

Here are some soundclips of an (unfortunately) OOP disc with the late Ewald Kooiman, recorded around mid-eighties. IMHO, his style of playing worked very good in Bach's liturgic organ compositions, always playing with great expression. Sometimes I consider him a bit over-articulating in the free works though. This changed btw in the nineties, when he recorded one of my favourite Bach integrals for Coronata .... alas, again OOP.

Kooiman is playing the Agricola/Schnitger/Hinsz organ, Martini Kerk, Groningen, NL (saved from destruction by Cor Edskes and restored by Jürgen Ahrend from 1976 to 1984).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eml6w6-tsH4

Toccata in F-Major BWV 540-1
http://www.mediafire.com/?ztjedj4yyzz

Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar BWV 607
http://www.mediafire.com/?33zm5h2hze2

Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn BWV 648
http://www.mediafire.com/?wdzdjgyndgt

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 720
http://www.mediafire.com/?afnmynzqhem

And, as a bonus, Kooiman playing Jesu, meine Zuversicht BWV 728 on the Stellwagen organ of the Jacobikirche, Lübeck (Germany).

http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmnzjgujge

I have to admit (again): I'm not the 'romantic' kinda guy .... but yes, this performance really moves me.

 

[GoneBaroque]

It would appear that Maarschalkerweerd went for that Romantic sound in their organs. I agree with you that while the romantic sound has its place I much prefer to Baroque sound particularly in this music. Having said this the performance of the 540 was sterling. I was not familiar with Smits but she is a masterful performer.

I look forward to listening to the clips you sent when I have more time. Thank you.

 

[Marc]

It would appear that Maarschalkerweerd went for that Romantic sound in their organs. I agree with you that while the romantic sound has its place I much prefer to Baroque sound particularly in this music. Having said this the performance of the 540 was sterling. I was not familiar with Smits but she is a masterful performer.

I look forward to listening to the clips you sent when I have more time. Thank you.

Yeah, it's a bit too much.
But you certainly got me inspired. Despite the flu, I enjoyed listening to Kooiman and Smits last night.

About 'my personal' Maarschalkerweerd experience: Bartelink was great, too. But the grand-maître mainly played other works, if I remember well mostly French late romantic and 20th century stuff + Hendrik Andriessen (Dutch composer, father of the nowadays famous contemporary composer Louis Andriessen). And these later works had a much better effect on this instrument IMHO.
It was August 2009, my 'organ rookie year' and Bartelink introduced me to Jehan Alain's music. I think it was Le jardin suspendu that especially caught my ear.

But I'm really more into music of 1800 A.D. and earlier, and for that music I prefer other instruments.

 

[teddy]

I really must spend more time on this thread. It is no good claiming that Bach is my favourite composer if I do not study his work more

teddy

 

[wljmrbill]

ah Teddy.. that is a Life time of work but well worth the effort.. Afraid I am not one of those who knows and plays all of Bach's works as some are able to do.

 

[chrishandoko]

I agree with you Teddy.Bach is the master of orgelworks on earth that ever lived.it's very interesting to learn his masterpiece.

 

[chrishandoko]

@bill: actually, how many orgel pieces that compose by Bach?

 

[wljmrbill]

@Chrishandoko: I believe it is around 1127 according to the BWV catalog. Another interesting fact to me is durning one period of his life he had to compose , reherase and perform one cantata a week for his position at the church.

 

[teddy]

My respect for the man grows and grows.

teddy

 

[chrishandoko]

@Bill:is it 1127 pieces are only orgel works or all of his works (including : missa, concerto and so on)?
really amazing that a composer had high productivity and every piece had high quality in harmony and technique.is that any other composer had high productivity like Bach?
I ever read a book that mentioned if Bach is the genious music that ever lived on earth, even after his era there's no genious music like him.is that true?

 

[Contratrombone64]

@chrishandoko

You are correct about Bach. He was one of the world's greatest minds. His output (just over a thousand works) is mainly vocal. His instrumental and keyboard works, whilst numerous are by no means as many in number as his music for the voice. That said - he wrote an impressive amount of organ music (of which I'm rather partial to the chorale perludes, see my publications here, too). Bach's a man whose music is endlessly surprising and mind-numblingly complex. Sheer genius.

 

[Marc]

Between 250 and 300 organ works are ascribed to Bach.
His entire (BWV) catalogue of works exists of 1128 works. This means: including non-organ works of course.

The last discovered work by Bach (BWV 1128) happened to be an organ work btw: the choral fantasia Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält.

 

[GoneBaroque]

Wonderful. Thank you Marc for this lovely treasure discovered it would appear in 2008 in a private collection of manuscripts being auctioned in Leipzig. An what a fine instrument is is played on.

 

[teddy]

Thank you Marc. Throughly enjoyable

teddy

 

[GoneBaroque]

Here is an article on BWV 1128 written in German, English and French which is of interest.

http://www.harrassowitz.de/music_services/documents/J.S.Bach_Fantasia_BWV1128.pdf

It was composed between 1705 and 1710. The article references a source for the score.

 

[wljmrbill]

Enjoyed it Marc.. so my 1127 is wrong now with this discovery.. and I must say a great discovery at that. Thanks for posting it.