Orgelbüchlein - JS Bach - MC Alain
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 01 April 2010
About a fortnight ago I bought the Erato 15 CD set of the 1978-80 recordings of JS Bach's organ music performed by Marie-Claire Alain.
This is somewhat different in approach to Helmut Walcha's 1947-52 cycle recorded by DG Archive. The Walcha is somewhat incomplete, and there are some quite significant gaps in the older set, though the great series of Preludes and Fugues have pride of place, and the Leipzig Chorale Preludes are included as you would expect along with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schubler chorals, the Trio Sonatas, and many of the isolated pieces ... As far as I can tell, and I am open to correction of course, the Alain set is as complete as you are likely to find on records.
I suppose it would be fair to say that I found up till now the much more substantial Preludes in the Leipzig set much easer to grasp than those of the Orgelbüchlein, and I have always found the set a slightly difficult prospect. Some of these Chorale Preludes only a few bars long, and to set the mood quickly enough for these aphoristic pieces [many of them if not all] to really make an impact is quite an achievement. Alain manages the trick splendidly, and though I have known several recordings of the set, including Herrick on Hyperion, and Hurford on Decca [and of course Walcha], nothing has come so close as this to imagining the music so splendidly as part of a church service as intended.
Alain manages the splendid announcement of the music's intent without a sense of each piece being performed in series, but rather that each performance is wholly satisfying of itself. To listen to one on its own would be enough great music making for a whole evening! Each is characterized with immediacy in terms of degree of joy or contemplation [and so on], and the recording itself is from the top draw.
As the entire cycle cost less than £40, I am tempted to say that this set alone is worth the price, but that is to ignore the fact that everything in this cycle is touched with freshness and grand interpretive wisdom, always leavened with playing that is on occasion joyfully playful, as it is on other occasions as serious and contemplative as the music seems to imply.
Among the works that she has opened up for me, I have finally come across a recording of the Concertos [based in a degree directly on Vivaldi, from whom Bach owed a considerable debt in learning his craft], which here get lucid wonderfully flowing performances that avoid what is all too common, and that is a monumental "wall of sound" that eliminates the chance of the glorious inner detail registering as subtle as well as lucid. Walcha leaves these Concerti out, as being not pure Bach. Really they are impure Vivaldi, but music this lovely disserves an airing, and Alain gives them more than just that.
The Trio Sonatas are also splendidly performed!
I commend this set. Just because it is inexpensive should not raise any doubts about its quality! A splendid makeweight for the old Walcha set, and both are shown in a great light, considering the other.
The organs used are modern Baroque style instruments, of superb character, and lucidity as recorded.
ATB from George
This is somewhat different in approach to Helmut Walcha's 1947-52 cycle recorded by DG Archive. The Walcha is somewhat incomplete, and there are some quite significant gaps in the older set, though the great series of Preludes and Fugues have pride of place, and the Leipzig Chorale Preludes are included as you would expect along with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schubler chorals, the Trio Sonatas, and many of the isolated pieces ... As far as I can tell, and I am open to correction of course, the Alain set is as complete as you are likely to find on records.
I suppose it would be fair to say that I found up till now the much more substantial Preludes in the Leipzig set much easer to grasp than those of the Orgelbüchlein, and I have always found the set a slightly difficult prospect. Some of these Chorale Preludes only a few bars long, and to set the mood quickly enough for these aphoristic pieces [many of them if not all] to really make an impact is quite an achievement. Alain manages the trick splendidly, and though I have known several recordings of the set, including Herrick on Hyperion, and Hurford on Decca [and of course Walcha], nothing has come so close as this to imagining the music so splendidly as part of a church service as intended.
Alain manages the splendid announcement of the music's intent without a sense of each piece being performed in series, but rather that each performance is wholly satisfying of itself. To listen to one on its own would be enough great music making for a whole evening! Each is characterized with immediacy in terms of degree of joy or contemplation [and so on], and the recording itself is from the top draw.
As the entire cycle cost less than £40, I am tempted to say that this set alone is worth the price, but that is to ignore the fact that everything in this cycle is touched with freshness and grand interpretive wisdom, always leavened with playing that is on occasion joyfully playful, as it is on other occasions as serious and contemplative as the music seems to imply.
Among the works that she has opened up for me, I have finally come across a recording of the Concertos [based in a degree directly on Vivaldi, from whom Bach owed a considerable debt in learning his craft], which here get lucid wonderfully flowing performances that avoid what is all too common, and that is a monumental "wall of sound" that eliminates the chance of the glorious inner detail registering as subtle as well as lucid. Walcha leaves these Concerti out, as being not pure Bach. Really they are impure Vivaldi, but music this lovely disserves an airing, and Alain gives them more than just that.
The Trio Sonatas are also splendidly performed!
I commend this set. Just because it is inexpensive should not raise any doubts about its quality! A splendid makeweight for the old Walcha set, and both are shown in a great light, considering the other.
The organs used are modern Baroque style instruments, of superb character, and lucidity as recorded.
ATB from George