Customer Reviews

Albert Schweitzer plays Bach, Vol.1

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Be sure to have an idea about Schweitzer's play and recordings before you buy the CD. The recording is very old, so only if you wish to hear the great organist's play and don't care about the recording's quality, you'll be able to enjoy this item.

This is a recording of 1935-36 years. Schweitzer's 1951's performance sounds better! Please note, that although the amazon page says the last recording is "Prelude and Fugue for organ in A minor, BWV 543", the actual CD contains only the Fugue! Anyway, it's Schweitzer, he is great, i knew what i was buying, and i like the CD!

Albert Schweitzer: humanitarian, scholar, theologian- and musucian of the first rank. I had never known that this nobel peace Prize winning man was also a remarkable organist. Well, that he is. His Bach allows his very passion and love for mankind to come through while still being true the written note. Although the sound quality on this CD isn't great, it's still definitely worth your money.

First, a slight correction. These recordings, at least Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, and Prelude and Fugue in G Major, were recorded by English Columbia records in 1938 at a church with the bizarre name of Barking In The Hollows or something like that. I have those 12-inch 78's which I got at the Seattle Goodwill in 1970. Sometime probably in the 60's Angel records released this collection on an LP, and for some time it was in the Tacoma Public Library, but now it is gone.
What this collection sounds like to me is Schweitzer slamming down on the organ to show you how overwhelming Bach's organ works can be. I have listened to Virgil Fox, E. Power Biggs, and Daniel Chorzempa (and Universal Pictures too) doing Bach's organ works, and they sound more like someone tiptoeing through the tulips rather than trying to show us who God is. Absorb this collection, and then you can play around with other peoples' versions. Don't worry about the fidelity - these are recordings that transcend fidelity.