Customer Reviews

Organ Music 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found the veteran Kraft's playing to be clumsy and wooden, not to mention devoid of a concept to make these pieces soar (and, to handcuff JS Bach, is a negative miracle in itself!). This is definitely not the "celestial Bach", but a paint-by-numbers portrait -- everything is an approximation.

On the Passacaglia, for instance, there is a lack of smoothness and flow in the various counter-melodies which undermine the dramatic climax. Nearly every bar demonstrates how a performer's limitations handicap a composer's ambitions.

At this price, the set is probably an adequate start for a new collector on a fixed budget wanting to hear Bach (as I was), but you'll definitely want to keep searching. In the bargain bin, I'd take the giddy enthusiasms of Virgil Fox, the driving percolations of E. Power Biggs or, best of all, the taste-of-Heaven poetry of Anton Heiller over the underwhelming Kraft. (Incidentally, the finest version I've ever heard of my favorite piece, Passacaglia in C Minor, is by the mysterious Carl Weinrich from a 1964 RCA LP that I found a used-copy of several years ago. Lamentably, Mr. Weinrich -- "one of the greatest living interpreters of Bach's organ music" according to the liner notes -- has not joined the digital age as I cannot find a single CD reference of his work.)

Walter Kraft's playing is technically advanced but unimaginative. Most pieces are just played along either too fast or too slowly, with virtually no climaxes. I was especially upset by his rendition of the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C (BWV 564). Adagio was ok, but Toccata sounded like a race just to get it over with. In the Fugue, whose very music commands it to be crystal-sharp and dance-like, the pedal registration was so heavy and muddy that it pulled the manuals down with it.

I wouldn't recommend this CD to a serious music lover. However, it presents a good lesson in how to keep a steady tempo throughout a piece and could be useful as an educational tool.

This is the CD re-issue of the famous 'Vox Box' 18 LP set issued sometime in the mid-1960's. The tragedy to this point is that the remaining five volumes of the set have yet to be re-issued.

This version of the complete Bach Organ works compares very favorably to the better-known set with Helmut Walcha on DG, in that the Kraft set is TRULY complete. (A number of minor but delightful Bach works are omitted in the Walcha compilation.) Additionally, unlike Walcha, who recorded his Bach compilation on just a couple of organs, most notably the Frans Casper Schnitger organ at the St. Laurenskerk in Alkmaar, Holland, Kraft and the producers at Vox literally 'hit the road', recording their Bach collection on a number of organs around Germany. This makes for a more interesting overall sound, in my view, and especially for the Orgelbuchlein (Volume 5) matches the organ to the material better.

The only knock to the entire project is, in a few cases,the sound. I only have the LP issues to go by for much of this review, but I have to say that there was some problems in a few of the disks back then, maybe in the pressings. I hope that it's not in the recording. When the CD set eventually comes out in its entirety, which can't happen too soon, I trust that we will find out. In the case of Volume 1, which is currently available, the sound transfer from the analog to the digital is hardly a problem. I've had this CD set for over a year and I find the playing to be a delight, maybe, but barely, second to the best I've heard from Biggs in his heydey. However, Biggs never recorded EVERYTHING in the Bach literature. At least we have that from Walter Kraft and the folks at Vox. Now, when can we all expect the remainder of this project to be available?

--Art Reis/Chicago

As an amateur, a listener to Bach and not an instrumentalist, I cut my teeth on these old Walter Kraft recordings years ago. Sometimes they are very sober but clear, other times Kraft cuts loose. The greatest occasion of his "cutting loose" is not here: The Prelude & Fugue in e minor (BWV 548), the "Wedge." There are a few organists who have understood the dramatic possibilities of this 2-movement organ symphony (e.g., Virgil Fox). Like Helmut Walcha, Kraft plays the pedal trills in the fugue, at considerable speed, and escalates to full organ for the recapitulation of the fugue. (It's the Nyhoff/Johansen at Lüneburg.) I hope the entire series from the old complete Bach organ works will be reissued.

Kraft's style shows little flashy registration or displays of virtuosity. It would not be well-suited to most French music. However, he uses the principal chorus very well, and his playing is precise and solid which is well-suited to German music. In many respects it gives the feel of a Lutheran church service more so than a recital.

The best. As Landowska once said to a rival who commented on their different interpretations, "You play Bach your way, I play Bach his way." Not a lot of embellishment here but beautiful playing, crystalline interpretations. Listen to the long powerful arcs in the phrasing, see the celestial architecture of the music.
Now where are volumes 2-6?

I read that Kraft's playing style is "wooden" and "unimaginative" but I thought that the music was truly glorious. I especially like the Vivaldi Concertos; the first movement of the Concerto in d minor is really the best and it was very moving. He might stick to the written tempo(!), but his technique is really first-rate, especially in the Toccata in F and the Toccata in C, both of which require advanced skills in not only the manuals but also in the pedals. Other recordings of those particular works may be more flashy but the effect of the music is destroyed by bad playing. I can't imagine why they haven't put out the other Volumes of his, I would buy them in an instant! Great CD's and a must for all those who love Bach's music, and music in general!

A long-overdue CD remake of part, but only a small part, of Kraft's 1960's LP "Complete Organ Works of Bach, performed on a variety of superb Central and Northern European organs. The c-minor Fantasia, followed by the c-minor fugue, played on the extremely fine Tonder (Denmark) instrument, are alone worth the price.

But when will Vox bring out Vols. 2, 3, etc??!!

I understand that VOX will be issuing the entire set in their new masterings at their website Jay