Dear All,

BF, BM and L and I are considering buying CDs of the complete organ works of Bach. We have 33rpm records of Helmut Walcha and have yet to hear anything quite as musical.

What would you recommend to folk who do not wish to listen to 'spiky' neo-baroque renditions?

All comments gratefully received!

Barry Williams

Evening Barry,

The remastered Walcha recordings are available on CD on amazon at a very reasonable price (I have yet to be let down by Amazon Marketplace and have used it several times)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0...a+bach+complete

As a student in Durham I picked up and really loved (and still do) the Brilliant Classics reissue of the Hans Fagius set played on some fantastic (often Swedish) organs. At ?25 for the whole lot, it is uniformly excellent and probably won't be beaten for value. Here it is:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/J-S-Bach-Complete-...6616&sr=8-5

I also have one of Kevin Bowyer's discs on Nimbus (the one with the G and D major P and Fs) and if a boxed set of that was available (which I don't know) it would be worth considering.

Hope this is of help can let you know more about Fagius if you like next time we speak,

Best

Charles

For me it's Peter Hurford's set.

My favourite set played by a contemporary organist is Gerhard Weinberger's on the ' cpo' label. He performs on historic organs for the entire set, so that won't suit everybody.

Building a libary on R3 done a programme on the complete organ works of Bach last October. Their own recomendation was for the later Marie-Claire Alain set.

However, I think it's a hard choice between many of the very good sets and comes down to what one is striving to hear the most, be that historical organs, technical virtuosity, historical or modern performance practice etc etc. I have the Hurford set and have always found it perfectly listenable even if the tempos do err on the fast side. Aside from the sets already mentioned, what about Simon Preston on DG?

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/work.php?id=6612

Maybe this will help you?

I don't know if she has done the complete works but I have a high regard for Margaret Phillips' Bach recordings for Regent and intend to add more of these to my small stock.

I like the 'clean' way she plays; free from too much personal input. Not quite sure what I mean but you get the feeling that there is little getting in the way of what the composer intended. (As if I'd know!)

I am generally a fan of Kevin Bowyer. But my own complete set is a very old remastered set on old North German Organs (some of which Bach played) by Wolfgang Stockmayer. I bought the 11 CD set in Singapore in a sale, for equivalent of ?20, and reckon I got a bargain!

I cannot stand Ton Koopman !

I bought most of the Herrick set - I guess I started with it when it was the one easiliest available in the local shop.
I like especially the phrasing and sense of structure.
Sometimes the ornamentation irritates but that's personal - I find things hard enough to play without making them harder.
Sometimes I would have preferred a different registration, perhaps there is a striving for variety - as if he's saying "do you really want 70 minutes of preludes and fugues on organo pleno?"
On the whole I find the disks very satisfying and they make me think about the music.
Often I'll put a disc on to listen to one track and then stay with the disc to the end.

I'm equally sure I would enjoy many other versions

Barry, I find myself returning to the Hurford, time after time. I like the Bowyer (though I don't have the complete set), and also the Herrick.

I am not a great collector of CDs, so cannot offer much insight into the available recordings, but I venture a few random comments for what they are worth.

Hurford's set is, of course, supremely musical and the organs he plays are wonderful (none more so than Laurence Phelps's gem in Toronto). However it is an unashamedly neo-Baroque interpretation on neo-Baroque organs and absolutely fails Barry's criterion of spikiness. Hurford's speeds are also very fast, which will not suit those who like to be able to savour Bach's harmony to full effect (as he intended). To my mind, where the set scores is in the consistency of both the intepretations and the recorded sound over the different organs and acoustics - a triumph by both Hurford and Decca.

Of Kevin Bowyer's set, I did once have the CDs of "The Eighteen" played at St. Hans Kirke, Odense, but found the performances pedestrian; I ended up giving the discs away. However, there is no more exacting a test of an organist's ability to intepret Bach than playing the "The Eighteen" as a complete set, so it would be unfair to judge his whole cycle from these discs alone.

Margaret Phillips's cycle is a work in progress. So far there are five double-CDs. She plays on different organs, some historical, some modern. I do not have the latest volume, but I find a great deal to admire in the first four. Her speeds are reasonable and her registrations avoid neo-Baroque tinkliness. Her performances are always most musical. I have two reservations. One is that the discs lack the coherent vision and uniformity of interpretation so apparent in Hurford's cycle. I assume that in Phillips's case this is due to the different ages and conditions of the organs she plays. All her performances are excellent, but those on the Cambridge Metzler and Paris Aubertin are way above those on the older instruments, where one has to make some allowances for their age. My other reservation is the recorded sound. I have no expertise in this area at all, but my impression is that there is perhaps just a little too much ambience.

I have both the Hurford and Herrick sets, and enjoy listening to both. I also have a few of the recordings by Wolfgang Rubsam on the Naxos label, recorded on various organs in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.
Although I find some of the recordings a little overwhelming - for instance, the large preludes and fugues are played on the plenum throughout - Rubsam's playing is musical, and many of the organs are of historical interest.

They are also extremely good value for money, currently ?5.99 each.

Ses

I have the Herrick collection and I think Herrick's playing is superb although some of his speeds are significantly faster than I favour. Some of Hurford's are on the fast side, too, but, again, the playing is top quality.
I only possess one disc of Rubsam playing Bach and I do not want any more. Unlike you, Ses, I don't find his playing very musical. It is solid and heavy to the point of ponderousness, and his playing displays some peculiar rhythmic features which hinder fluency. I find his playing lacks spontaneity.
My favourite set of Bach by a contemporary player on historic instruments is the one on the cpo label by Gerhard Weinberger. Weinberger plays with a spontaneous fluency backed up by authoritative scholarship which enhances every one of his performances.
Of those collections on modern instruments I can't quite make up my mind about whether I prefer Herrick's or
Marie-Claire Alain's.
I am clear about my favourite Bach player of all time, though : the late Helmut Walcha.

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful thoughts and suggestions.

We have been able to listen to at least something from all of the suggestions, thanks to the local library and friends.

Many of the performances are given on 'neo-baroque' insturments that are tiring on the ear. One set was just too fast - almost every piece! Others have odd mannerisms of rhythm and articulation that get in the way of listening.

BF, BM & L prefers Helmut Walcha for sheer musicality, followed, (and you may find this interesting,) by Albert Schweitzer, especially for the chorale preludes. It may be that familiarity is the main factor here, but I do find Walcha's playing very persuasive, so we will be investing in those CDs.

Thank you all, again, for your contributions to this very interesting debate.

Barry Williams