Customer Reviews

Organ Works

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Happy the organist, like Peter Hurford, who can record over a period of twelve years in countries such as Germany, Austria, England, Australia, USA and Canada the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach! Exploring the way Bach's mind works must be the most rewarding experience for which a practising musician could wish.

Peter Hurford did all this, between 1974 and 1986. The result is this tightly packed box of 17 CDs. It is possibly the largest recorded survey of Bach's works for organ. It includes items that some researchers believe are of doubtful authenticity. Hurford uses mainly C20th organs, or organs that incorporate piping from earlier originals. Registrations occasionally include a discrete tremolo, such as may be heard in the Chorale Prelude "Auf meinen lieben Gott" BWV 744. When you hear the sound fade and disappear at the end of the 16th CD, don't suspect a technical fault. The work being played, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 535a, was left incomplete by Bach.

Clifford Bartlett has written the accompanying notes, reproduced in English French, German and Italian. Organ specifications are detailed, and recording dates and locations are specified.

When your hands are busy with four manuals and ranks of organ stops, and when your feet are playing a footboard, it is difficult to maintain a flowing and consistent pulse in the music. Peter Hurford, in my estimation, "never puts a foot wrong" in this regard. Tempos are never irregular, either for reasons of expressiveness or because of physical coordination difficulties.

This well-presented issue is one of the few to receive a rosette award in the "Penguin Bargain Guide to CDs".

I grew up on Helmut Walsha, then on to Ton Koopman on Novalis. Then I realised I ought to expand my collection. The box set arrived, and I cranked up the tubes a sat back. I have to say it was a shock. Initially I was a bit disappointed. The timing was quite different, the pieces I knew so well were lighter, more airy. I listened on and into the night, and found my initial reaction was unfounded. Peter Hurford has, I truly believe, got to the heart of the pieces, the detail is remarkable, the playing so natural, the emotion just pours out of the speakers.
Treble details flows out across the room like I have never heard, and the big pipes rumble beneath the set, and all retaining a remarkable church acoustic.
Forget all that has gone before, buy it and listen, but don't stay up to late!

Bach's organ works place incredible demands on the performer, both physically (consider the endurance it takes to play the massive Toccata in F major), technically (the Trio Sonatas, among many others), and interpretationally. Peter Hurford triumphantly meets those demands in a spectacular set of recordings.

To those who are doubters: listen to the (in)famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, that overplayed warhorse. Hurford brings to it an electricity that makes you feel you are hearing it for the first time again. He also has an amazing ear for registrations, one of the most underestimated difficulties of an organist's art, never wearying the ear, but using a wide palette of colors. [Bach himself was widely known for his innovative registrational practices. Contemporaries remarked that when he was testing organs he would pull combinations of stops that they were certain would sound badly together, only to find that he had created an entirely new sound. Thus, creative registrations should not offend purists in any way.]

Hurford's approach to these works obviously takes into consideration, but is certainly not bound by, historically informed performing practices. His phrasing is immaculate, and consistently interesting. In all, this is a stunning accomplishment.

GET THIS WHILE IT REMAINS AVAILABLE. The classical recording industry is in trouble, and the deletions axe is constantly falling. Large, expensive sets like this are sure to go. While the price itself appears high, it is really very reasonable, running under $8 per disc.

Hurford is outstanding in these performances and I never get tired of listening to his playing. The organs range from the massive Ratzeburg Cathedral to smaller but authentic "German" baroque organs, all with mechanical tracker action. The famous Toccata and Fuge in d features unbelievable sounds from the Ratzeburg organ, best heard with a very large subwoofer and a very powerful amplifier. But there are other organs which are equally magnificent, too. His registrations are always imaginative, sometimes surprising. His technique is flawless. If you want all of Bach's organ music, you can't go wrong with this one.

This is music to lift the heart and soul. Peter Hurford's rendition of the complete works for organ by Bach makes me want to jump for joy. I listen for hours, never sated on this kind of pleasure. I also have recently acquired Marie-Claire Alain's beautiful version of the complete works. Comparisons are thrilling, in that the two performers present very different but to me equally compelling renditions. It's like looking into the psyche of two quite disparate performers and finding the depths and predilections of each. I enjoy Hurford's playing for his enthusiasm and evident joy, his awed exploration of Bach's magnificence; and if his tempi and phrasing seem to some to be departures from convention, I find that in him to be exciting and admirable. His version of the too much played Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, for example, is a learning experience for me, in that he uses dramatic accents and phrasing that bring out the totally new from the old. From his photograph I imagine him to be an opinionated, rapturous pixie, with a profundity informing his athletic eclecticism that stretches my perception while it also moves me deeply.

I was drawn to this stunning collection while searching nostalgically for Bach organ works that I recalled from school in the 1960s. Every morning for the six years I attended, chapel services at my school began and ended with Bach preludes and fugues, beautifully played on the school's pipe organ by a clever organist who was abruptly fired the last year I attended. --Rumor had it the not-so-nice new headmaster dismissed the organist because he was gay.-- While I can still hear many of those Bach preludes in the voice of that organ in my mind's ear, I never learned their names.

As I started to rush through this collection listening for familiar bits, I found not only the themes that I remembered, but also great many jubilant surprises. Peter Hurford interpretations are simple and straightforward but extraordinary, as are the sound quality and his imaginative play on the instrument. Any one of the 17 CDs in the collection could easily stand by itself. This is not your usual complete collection. Buy it and listen; be lifted by the sounds and the clean, imaginative playing again and again!

Peter Hurford's traversal of the entire organ literature for London Decca is truly one of the greatest recorded achievements. All of the performances in this seventeen-disc set are immaculately played and perfectly performed. His vision, technicality, and sensibility make him a sensitive and authoritative interpreter of J.S. Bach's organ works. The records are mostly digital, crystal clear, and quite powerful. Hurford's command of his technique is astounding. I cannot stress how important this set truly is. I HIGHLY recommend buying this compilation. At about 8 dollars a CD, this is most certainly a steal.

Well, reading the other reviews, I see I won't have much of anything new to add to the praise this outstanding collection is getting. I just had to express how wonderful it all is.

Bach's music is so enigmatic and mystical, and the complexity of a Bach fugue is a joy to try and decipher.Yet many also have memorable melodies, some sublime, some pronounced, all developed with perfect precision and harmony, never too long or too brief. Furthermore, many of these works are INTENSE. Whoever says Bach wasn't a man of passion the likes of Beethoven hasn't heard these epic pieces.

I suppose the only negative thing to comment on is that, seeing how these works were recorded using analog technology, occasionally on some of the quieter pieces there is a notable hissing noise, but all in all, 95% of the time, recording quality is excellent.

Anyway, this is complex,beautiful,and often earth shaking music that will enhance your life.

Like another reviewer here I grew up on Helmut Walcha's DG set on LP, and was also familiar with a number of other "great Bach organ work" collections.

One can cavil over the way Hurford takes some of the pieces, I suppose, but his flair, imaginative registrations, and sheer musicality are hard to beat, and the recording too is fantastic.

It's quite easy to listen to three or four CDs from this set in a row, which says something about how fertile Bach's imagination, but also how absorbing Hurford's performance, and how willing he is to avoid generic and worthy church-like interpretations. This is music and music-making of the highest quality.

All of Bach's on 17 CDs of very decent sound quality. The paper CD sleeves are the only thing one wishes could be better. The box and the little booklet inside are very solid and good-looking.

The booklet is very handy as its tracklists are a lot more detailed. For example, CD5 has 35 (!) tracks; of course, the full listing would never fit on the sleeve, that is slightly larger than the CD it houses.
So tracks 12-35 are only referred to as "Chorale Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, BWV 690-713". However, the booklet gives each Prelude's full name, BWV# and duration. A sort of treatise on Bach's organ music with respect to this collection is also included (in English, French, German and Italian), offering interesting insights.