Organ Works, volume 1

While at home alone today, I'm able to listen (audition, really) some music with Pure Music software. At those insanely loud volumes. It's fun stuff, and I turned to this first volume of Bach's organ works issued in the mid-1990s by Teldec, performed by the great Ton Koopman. This is my favorite organ CD, and I only wished I had the entire set that was released on Teldec (I have two more editions, a large volume 5, and the trio sonatas). This set was a planned recording of all of Bach's organ works by Koopman, on historic baroque organs. Koopman is a master, and this first volume is an attention getter with several outstanding works by Bach. We open with the "great" Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 542. It's probably only the organ fugue that's made me cry. I can think back to the organ recitals I'd attend with Karel Paukert at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He performed his number, and almost fell off the seat. The music is that good to stir one's emotions, and in the hands of a master, to push you over the edge. Koopman is on fire in this recording. The so-called "little" fugue in G minor is next, BWV 578. More preludes and fugues fill the center tracks, before Koopman closes with the even more awesome Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582. In total, 1.2 hours of music, 10 tracks. I've never seen Koopman perform live, but you can find some of the music performed on this CD via YouTube, and watching Koopman play confirms for me, he's one of the greatest baroque keyboard players alive. Organ music isn't such a bad thing to play loudly on your home stereo. It helps to have good bass response, Here's hoping this collection is re-released sometime soon. Teldec has seemed to go belly-up with their Das Alte Werke series of historically-informed performances, but Warner has re-released portions of the catalog on re-issue. Now to close my eyes... and to stir the imagination of sitting in a cathedral as the Praeludium et Fuga in A minor (BWV 543) washes over me. I am not sure the Thomaskirche qualifies as a cathedral, but as long as we're imagining, why not?