Mates,
Bach's birthday is always a good excuse to listen to a lot of Bach. The last two "Pipedreams" programmes were both Bach oriented and inspired me to listen to Bach's complete organ works this past weeks, these the 17-Hans Fagius recordings from the Brilliant Classics 155-CD complete works set. I still marvel at that set- many very good recordings of everything- several new discoveries for me and only $.80 per CD! By the way, I would encourage fans of organ music to visit the Pipedreams site- you can stream 100's of hours of the programmes from the archive. Many of the performances heard are not available elsewhere and of course, the serendipity of such shows increases the chance to discover new composers- I got interested in Durufle from music heard on Pipedreams. Micheal Barone is a good commentator and selector too- he's not overbearing nor shows up superior knowledge with the performers.
Bach's organ works never cease to fascinate me- I have over 200 LP's and CD's of the organ works out of 600+ recordings of organ overall. One of the great features of the organ is that each instrument imparts such varying qualities to it, each organ is different enough to to always allow these 300 year old works to seem fresh. If you're bored to tears with the Toccata and Fugue in d ("DoodleDOO--DumptyDumptyDump-DOO!")- that's always the accompaniment to insane or impossibly egotistical movie characters, listen to Cameron Carpenter's interpretation on the Marshall and Ogletree virtual organ- a rollicking symphonic soundtrack for a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon. -Sorry, "cartoon" must be politically incorrect- it's probably "graphic video?" now. It's always fun to to hear the hidden jewels that never became the war horses- for example the Vier Duetten (4 Duets) are rarely heard but just incredibly fun- 2- part energetic bump and grind chromatic harmonies and syncopated counterpoint. Bach was a master of the organ in all it's forms- all that musical genius- plus 18 children,..
This week I also "5G'd": Got Good Glenn Gould Going- the "English Suites".
It must be a sign of impending old age- these days I enjoy celebrating Bach's birthday far more than my own,..
Cheers,
Bambi B
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Topic - Happy 325th Birthday Herr Bach ! - Bambi B 09:02:34 03/21/10 (4)
- Tureck - conn 16:15:12 03/21/10 (0)
- RE: Happy 325th Birthday Herr Bach ! - Travis 13:48:14 03/21/10 (0)
- Herr Bach is only 325? Why, he doesn't look a day over... - musetap 13:35:35 03/21/10 (0)
- Richter on organ, Landowska on harpischord. Ah, Johann Sebastian heaven..... nt - tinear 09:06:39 03/21/10 (0)