Bach Jesus

Helmut Walcha gilt als Instanz der Bach-Interpretation – kein anderer Organist seit Erfindung der Schallplatte erzielte durch sein Bachspiel eine derart nachhaltige Breitenwirkung. Zum Gedenken an seinen 30. Todestag erscheinen erstmals alle Aufnahmen auf Archiv Produktion, Deutsche Grammophon und Philips in dieser Edition. Diese umfasst das Bachsche Orgelwerk in einer Mono- (1947-52) und einer Stereofassung (1956-71), das Wohltemperierte Clavier, die Violinsonaten mit Henryk Szeryng und Walcha am Cembalo, sowie Orgelwerke norddeutscher Prägung von Bruhns, Scheidt, Buxtehude und Sweelinck. Erstmals findet sich eine frühe Walcha-Aufnahme mit dem Thomanerchor Leipzig von 1927.

Bach reserved some of his most elaborate cantatas for worship on the Sunday before the beginning of Lent – and it was for that very day that he composed the cantatas BWV 22 and 23 in 1723, as test pieces destined to gain him the post of Leipzig Kantor. The cantatas BWV 127 and 159 were written for the same Sunday in subsequent years.

The first Archiv Produktion recordings were made in 1947 by Leipzig-born organist Helmut Walcha who set a new standard in terms of organ performances and recordings. Walcha held an unrivalled position as a Bach interpreter.

Catrin Finch won the 2000 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, as well as the Princeton University Concerts Prize and the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize. She was also awarded First Prize at the 1999 Lily Laskine International Harp Competition in France, and the Victor Salvi Foundation has provided her with generous sponsorship, including her debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2000, a new Salvi "Aurora" Harp, and a CD. Other honors include the Marisa Robles Harp Prize at the 1999 Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London, and prizes in the Wales National Eisteddfod Festival and World Harp Festival Competitions. Most recently, she won the 2004 Echo Klassik award for Best Crossover Artist in Germany and was nominated for the Classical Brit Awards in the category of Young British Classical Performer, resulting in an appearance on ITV with Bryn Terfel.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788) also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach.
C. P. E. Bach was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father's Baroque style and the Classical style that followed it. His personal approach, an expressive and often turbulent one known as empfindsamer Stil or 'sensitive style', applied the principles of rhetoric and drama to musical structures. His dynamism stands in deliberate contrast to the more mannered galant style also then in vogue.

Domestic music-making of a distinctly superior sort is lovingly recreated in a rare recording of the notebooks Bach presented to his second wife.

Domestic music-making of a distinctly superior sort is lovingly recreated in a rare recording of the notebooks Bach presented to his second wife.

Domestic music-making of a distinctly superior sort is lovingly recreated in a rare recording of the notebooks Bach presented to his second wife.

The fifth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s series of Bach’s works for organ features one of the most important surviving instruments from Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them while remaining faithful to the originals, making this an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound world of the Leipzig Thomaskantor. Suzuki now takes up the Orgel-Büchlein (literally, “little organ book”), a collection of 45 short chorale preludes on melodies from the Lutheran hymn book, a project that came into being in connection with Bach’s appointment as organist and chamber musician at the Duke’s court in Weimar in 1708. Presenting chorales for different periods of the church year, this collection serves as a general guide to text-based composition focusing on word-sound relationships and content-specific musical expression. Three Preludes and Fugues complete the second volume dedicated to the Orgel-Büchlein, illustrating the principle of variety and structure historically practised by concert organists in order to demonstrate the tone colours and expressive possibilities of their instrument.