9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Playing, But Woefully Flawed Recording, April 16, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Organ Works (Audio CD)
Heiller is a fine organist, and his interpretations of these Bach standards are well-done. The dire shame of this project is that the recording itself is full of drop-outs, momentary loss of channels, hiss, and wow/flutter. These scars aren't present on all tracks, but are on many of them (including the momumental Passacaglia -- particularly at the trimphant climax!). I don't know if these recording problems were on the original 1964 LP release or occurred in the CD mastering process, but, in all my decades of listening to all types of music, I have NEVER heard a commercially-released recording with such fundamental technical errors. Someone -- either in 1964 or 1996 -- was asleep in the engineering booth!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3.0 out of 5 stars
Major bummer!, May 22, 2000
This review is from: Organ Works (Audio CD)
For clarity, power, and rock-steadiness, this is the finest Bach organ recording ever made, some would argue the finest Bach keyboard recording ever made. But as the other reviewer notes, something indeed went horribly wrong in this Omega 2005 remastering. If the listed engineer David Baker is responsible, he should be pilloried.
The right channel especially is often in just terrible shape, with dropouts and distortion and timbral imbalance especially noticeable in Heiller's sensational performances of S.542 and the Passacaglia and Fugue (S.582). The left channel is more consistently acceptable. It makes one worry very much about Omega's quality control and their upcoming redos of the Vanguard catalog, of Heiller and other artists.
The program (chiefly from 2 lps) was previously released as Vanguard VCD-72014, now out of print, and all is well there, albeit at a lower signal level. So obviously there is, or was, a competent digital copy of the early-'60s master tapes, and one can only hope that Omega will find and rerelease that, or redo 2005, as these performances are simply unsurpassed as Bach playing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
