Bach Organ Works, Vol. 7

View record and artist details

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach

Label: Das Alte Werk

Magazine Review Date: 9/1998

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 65

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 0630-17647-2

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV534	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV539	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV541	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV545	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV547	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Fugue, 'Jig Fugue'	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Trio	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Pedal-Exercitium	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ
Pastorale	Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer Ton Koopman, Organ

Author: Marc Rochester

Nobody could ever accuse Ton Koopman of slavish adherence to a text even when it is of unimpeachable authenticity. His approach is aimed more at re-creating the spirit of the original performance, and if he can indulge in a spot of improvisation along the way, so much the better. A classic example here is the uninspiringly-titled Pedal-Exercitium where he gels Bach’s original fragments together into a marvellously fluent creation which, in his own words, “might have just escaped from a cello suite”.
However, Koopman’s performances can seem eccentric. Copious echo effects hover on the brink of poor taste, in spite of his spirited defence of the practice, while a penchant for excessively flamboyant ornamentation virtually obliterates the Fugue subject in BWV534. It’s rare indeed for Koopman to turn out a dull performance but that’s exactly what we get for the first 15 minutes of this disc. BWV577 is so studiedly un-gigue-like that it seems Koopman is parodying those tirelessly ebullient performances which this little Fugue usually inspires. I suspect it’s the December chill permeating the Waalse Kerk on the day of the recording session rather than any deliberate interpretative intent which makes BWV545 sound so wheezy and arthritic. With some historical justification Koopman inserts into this work the slow movement of the Trio Sonata, BWV529, but with the added movement longer than both the Prelude and the Fugue combined I find the result curiously ill-proportioned.
If the disc begins in wintry chill the sun blazes through eventually with a dazzling account of BWV541, and Koopman is clearly congenitally incapable of making a single disc without at least one example of supreme performing genius. Here it’s provided in a riveting account of the Fugue from BWV539: a performance which not only lays before our very ears every tiny detail of Bach’s contrapuntal craftsmanship, but also proves that fugues can be a lot of fun.'