Bach Toccatas

Johann Sebastian Bachin (1685–1750) musiikki tunnettiin hänen kuolemansa jälkeen pitkään lähinnä alan harrastajien keskuudessa. Felix Mendelssohnin (1809–1847) johtamasta Matteus-passion esityksestä Berliinissä 1829 alkoi Bach-renessanssi, joka nosti barokin mestarin suuren yleisön tietoisuuteen. Samalla Bachin teokset saivat alistua sovituksille, jotka olivat suosittuja aina 1900-luvulle saakka. Sovittaminen oli osa ajan esittämiskäytäntöä, sillä ennen autenttisuuskäsitteen syntyä kaikki musiikki sovitettiin vallitsevan tyylin mukaiseksi, ja niinpä myös Mendelssohnin johtama Matteus-passio oli mukautettu vastaamaan ajan musiikillis-esteettisiä haasteita.

In his ninth and tenth of a total of fourteen releases of Bach’s collected organ works, Kåre Nordstoga pulls together much of what was not collected from the composer’s side — preludes and fugues.

When, around 1705, Johann Sebastian Bach came to write his Toccatas, this form of keyboard music had already been known for over a century, and was strongly influenced by Italian, English and Flemish ideas. The Toccata was a product of both vocal and instrumental music, and preserved many of its distinctive features.

First Bach, then Reger, and now Bach/Reger: the present disc is Christoph Schoeners third MDG recording on the four organs in St. Michaels Church in Hamburg. The attractive program featuring Johann Sebastian Bachs seven toccatas, five of them in gripping arrangements by Max Reger, embodies the best and fullest opulence of sound. The MDG sound engineers rely on the very finest three-dimensional SACD technology, the big sound of this musical event, including the echo division and its extra spatial effects, can be enjoyed at home an audiophile highlight of a special kind! The seven toccatas were originally intended for the harpsichord.

The four Toccatas and Fugues require no introduction, including as they do the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, one of the most universally famous works in musical history, popularised notably by the cinema, from Monty Python to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. 
André Isoir’s classic recording has been the benchmark version for thirty years.

On her most recent album, the pianist Claire Huangci made her first discographic foray into the chamber-music world of Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel. Her latest album creates a musical link almost back to the beginning of her professional career, to her highly acclaimed Scarlatti album, and proves yet again that she has a very close relationship with Baroque repertoire: with Johann Sebastian Bach’s varied and sparklingly virtuoso Toccatas she has taken ownership of a rarely heard collection of works, in which she presents the entire emotional spectrum of the young adult Bach.

The four Toccatas and Fugues require no introduction, including as they do the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, one of the most universally famous works in musical history, popularised notably by the cinema, from Monty Python to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. André Isoir’s classic recording has been the benchmark version for thirty years.

Bach had written all the music on this disc by his early thirties, and it’s immediately striking for its spontaneity and expansiveness compared with the terse craftsmanship of his later years. Kenneth Gilbert is a thoroughly persuasive advocate, binding together the sectional toccatas and sustaining momentum through the long, potentially rambling, fugues. A high spot is the C minor Toccata with a final fugue so long that its pulse becomes hypnotic: you simply never want it to end.