In article <SU4ui.18796$ug3.4643@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Mark & Steven Bornfeld
<bornfeldmung@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
> Can someone recommend a recording?
Dear Bornfelds,
Really I'm recommending an organist, Simon Preston.
Unable to get Simon Preston, I have a crappy 2CD set of "The Art of
Fugue" played instead by the execrable Wolfgang Rubsam. Maybe Rubsam
was on Prozac or Ritalin, it's so badly played. I only listen to it
when I have a migraine. Anyway, at the end of it is an *appalling*
version of the Passacaglia and fugue. Phil Collins could do better.
Now, on the other hand, I have a SUPERB 14 CD set of Simon Preston
playing JS Bach's organ works (Deutsche Grammophon). Simon Preston is a
great artist, and his Bach orgelwerk recordings are very sensitive to
the church acoustics and sonorities of many famous baroque organs in
Europe. He has a very strong feel for tempo, the emotions of voicing
(organ stops), voice (fugue!) lines, and rhythmic drive. And like the
pianist Claudio Arrau, you don't hear _him_, but only who he's
interpreting. The 6th CD has the Passacaglia and fugue. That
Passacaglia, wow, it soars up through the heavens every time; it makes
me catch my breath and cry it's so beautiful.
I hope one day that Simon Preston records "The Art of Fugue".
With kind regards,
Sandy
--
Alexander Anderson
"Les choses, comme elles sont, dureront autant que moi."
Things, as they are, will last through my time.
(Louis XV)
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