Luogo e data di registrazione		Ringsted (Danimarca) - agosto 1970
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Michael Bernstein
	Prima Edizione LP		- Valois - MB 859 · Vol. 19 - (1 LP) - durata 52' 10" - (p) 1970 - Analogico - Valois - MB 860 · Vol. 20 - (1 LP) - durata 43' 43" - (p) 1970 - Analogico
	"Das Orgelwerke" LP		Telefunken - BC 25102-T/1-2 - (2 LP's) - durata 52' 10" / 43' 43" - (p) 1970 - Analogico
	Note		-

The present album comprises Bach’s five organ concertos based on others’ instrumental concertos, as well as a series of miscellaneous pieces, individual choral arrangements, trios, fantasias and fugues of varying worth and in some cases of disputed origin. It thus provides a glance into an aspect of Baroque organ practice which as a rule receives too little attention when seen from the usual point of view: the daily organ practice with which the organist extends his repertoire and becomes acquainted with the new styles and those of others. - The share of the arranger in the new designing of these works could be extremely varied: from the simple text book style transcription to the complete reorganization and fresh creation on the basis of the old material there are all the stages of appropriation. With such a system of working the question as to author also becomes hazy. The old manuscripts very often fail to mention the composer of the original work - he was in any event known to the initiated - and designate the work by the name of the arranger. Thus, among the works ascribed to Bach, one or the other will no doubt turn out to be the arrangement of another’s piece. - The solo concerto was eminently suitable for such arrangements. The Venetian violinist Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) had within a few years developed it into a leading instrumental genre of the time. The principle of concerto playing, the changing of different sound groups, the contrast between tutti and solo, had already been customary for about 100 years at that time. In the concerti grossi of Corelli and the solo concertos of Torelli certain forms of several-part instrumental concerto had already taken shape before 1700. It was left to Vivaldi, however, to create the new concerto type that held the future. On the pattern of the Neapolitan opera sinfonia he had reduced the number of movements to three: two fast outer movements and a slow middle movement which was mostly of a lamento character and in uneven tempo. The most important element, however, was its formal, harmonious and thematic disposition of the fast concerto movement. The starting point is the several-part tutti ritornello with a spirited opening movement, a continuation in sequence and cadenced epilogue. This is followed in frequent change by figurative solo passages and shorter tutti, made up of fragments of the ritornello. The movement usually ends with a free repetition of the entire ritornello. The compactness of the movement is reinforced by a clear harmonic disposition, in which the main functions of the major-minor tonality are exploited to the full. The solos modulate while the tutti strengthen the particular key. The thematic pithiness and the thrilling action of these movements would be inconceivable without the singilarly new, sharply accentuated tempo rhythm and the clearly jointed dominant cadences. Five Concertos based on Various Masters (BWV 592-596) (a sixth, BWV 597, is only weakly authenticated). Vivaldi’s concertos became quickly known in the German residences and were frequently copied. Bach had, during his Weimar organist and concertmaster period - like his cousin Johann Gottfried Walther who was active there - transposed a large number of such concertos to the piano and to the organ. The organ inevitably was particularly suitable for concerto arrangements of this kind; by way of alternation between the swell-organ or organo pleno and Rückpositiv, the organist was capable in perfect manner of depicting the contrast among the various concerto instrumental groups, the change from tutti and solo. Bach’s aim with these arrangements was to transpose the original composition as faithfully as possible to the new instrument. Here and there he complemented a counterpoint, enriched the harmony and adapted the figuration to the performance technical conditions of the organ. On the whole, however, he refrained from interference with the score, and apparently did his best to produce no more than a “keyboard excerpt” of the original. 1) Concerto A minor based on Vivaldi, BWV 593. Vivaldis’ A minor concerto for two violins and strings op. 3, No. 8 (Estro armonico), that is transposed here, is one of the outstanding pieces among over 400 concertos composed by the Venetian master. The first movement in particular fulfills all the demands that were made upon a modern concerto movement: a long, several-part ritornello with a spirited introductory subject at the beginning, richly alternating solo passages which do not content themselves with figurations but develop their own themes, a return of the entire ritornello in extended form at the conclusion. The adagio in D minor and in 3/4 time provides the expressive contrast. It is constructed above a bass figure which introduces and concludes the movement in ritornello style, and quasi ostinato, abridged in part, retains it throughout the whole movement. The final allegro, which again is built up in the concerto movement form, also differs in character and in tempo (3/4) from the first allegro. The ritornello is more compressed, the solos are more expansive. 2) Concerto C major based on Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, BWV 595. The two music loving Weimar princes, Ernst August and Johann Ernst, were diligent pupils of Johann Gottfried Walther. The younger, Johann Ernst, who died in 1715 at the age of nineteen, composed a series of solo concertos on the Italian pattern, some of which were also published. Bach, who was on friendly terms with the gifted princes, arranged some of the concertos for the piano and organ. The present organ arrangement contains only the first movement of a three-movement concerto - although considerably extended - the other movements of which have been handed down to us solely in the piano arrangement also by Bach, BWV 984. 3) Concerto in D minor based on Vivaldi, BWV 596. This work, which is available in a manuscript by Johann Sebastian Bach, was for a long time thought to be a composition by his son Wilhelm Friedemann. It was only later discovered that it was the arrangement of the D minor Concerto No. 11 from Vivaldi’s op. 3; even later it transpired that the arrangement originated from Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Before the aged Wilhelm Friedemann sold his father’s manuscript he wrote across the piece: “di W. F. Bach, manu mei Patris descriptum” (“by W. F. Bach, copied by the hand of my father”). It is difficult to imagine what induced him to carry out this forgery; for the purchaser, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, must have been far more interested in a work by Johann Sebastian Bach than a composition by his son. Judging by its formal style, the work accords more with the concerto grosso of the Corelli character than the modern solo concerto. The instrumentation of the original, which confronts the “grosso” with the soloist “concertino” consisting of two violins and cello, points in this direction. 4) Concerto C major based on Vivaldi, BWV 594. The organ arrangement is evidently based upon an earlier version of the violin concerto D major distributed in manuscript form, published in 1717 as No. 5 of the second instalment of op. 7. The recitative middle movement was exchanged in the printed version for another. Compared to the A minor concerto op. 3, No. 8 referred to above, the dimensions have considerably expanded, particularly of the soloist sections, and the virtuosity is greatly enhanced. Departing from custom, the first movement waives the return of the complete ritornello at the conclusion, the last fading out into a long solo cadenza with which the end is considerably protracted. 5) Concerto G major based on Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, BWV 592. The three-movement work, which Bach also arranged in addition for harpsichord (BWV 592 a), despite all its playful mood, clearly reveals the difference from its Italian pattern. It lacks the generously proportioned design, the strength of the themes, the singing quality of the figuration. Nor is it up to the standard of the one-movement concerto fragment by the prince reproduced above, and it is of interest only as a trial piece by a gifted young dilettante to whom Bach felt an obligation. Miscellaneous Works 1) Prelude, Trio and Fugue B-flat major, BWV 545 b. The prelude and fugue are already contained in the known and authentic version in C major (BWV 545) in the III series of Bach’s Organ Works. The present version and movement sequence originates from an English manuscript from the second half of the 18th century, and is ascribed there to the organist at London’s Westminster Abbey, John Robinson (1682-1762). It was published for the first time in 1959. After the prelude (BWV 545 a, transposed to B-flat major) there follows, linked by a short adagio movement, an organ version of the trio movement, which was previously known to us only as the finale of the sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord G minor (BWV 1029). A short tutti theme connects up with the fugue BWV 545/2, which here, like the prelude, is transposed into B-flat major. The two bridging movements probably originate from Robinson. It is uncertain whether Bach at one time envisaged the trio in this context; some manuscripts provide the prelude and fugue BWV 545 together with the slow movement of the organ sonata BWV 528. 2) O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig. This double chorale arrangement by Bach did not become known until the 1950’s. The first version proceeds in imitative style. The second paraphrases the chorale melody in the manner of the so-called “Arnstadter congregational chorales”, as described more fully in the second series of the Bach Organ Works. 3) Little harmonious Labyrinth, BWV 591. When, around 1700 the even tempered pitch of keyboard instruments began to assert itself, pieces came into use which modulated through the entire circle of fifths, or at least aimed at roving around in the keys with the aid of enharmonic alternations. The present piece, which is hardly likely to have been composed by Bach, but rather by the Dresden chapel master Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729), arranged the harmonic puzzle game in three sections: the overture-style “Introitus”, the “Centrum”, in which a chromatic theme is introduced as a fugue, and the slow “Exitus”. 4) Trio G major, BWV 1027a. The work, which has been handed down in only a single copy which gives little cause for confidence, consists of a short, musically not very convincing version of the last movement of the sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1027 or of the musically identically sonata for two flutes and continuo BWV 1039. As Ulrich Siegele has shown, by and large it is closer to the flute version. Up to the present day it has not been clarified whether it is an unskilful, non-authentic arrangement of this version, or a spoilt descendant of an “original version” to which the two sonata movements go back. 5) Fantasia C major, BWV 573. Bach entered this five-part fantasia, which from its beginnings was to be a large-scale work, in the first piano book of his wife Anna Magdalena in 1722. Unfortunately it was not completed. It breaks off bar 13 with the cadence at the 3rd degree. 6) An Wasserflüssen Babylon, BWV 653 b. Unlike the wellknown four-part arrangement of this chorale melody from the “Eighteen Chorales” of the later Leipzig period, this five-part original version is usually neglected. It is scored throughout for double pedal - and perhaps this performance technique speciality, which went out of use among organists in the first half of the 18th century, was the reason for the subsequent rearrangement. This earlier version is certainly not inferior to the later one as regards beauty and stylistic art. The heartpiece of the movement is the second part which repeats a plaintive eight-bar melody formed from the first two chorale lines going through the entire piece quasi ostinato. 7) Ach Gott, vom Himmel sich darein, BWV 741. This chorale arrangement by the young Bach is marked by tempestuous strength and wealth of invention. From a certain degree of stylistic malauroitness, which he later avoided and which he also smoothed over during a subsequent editing of the work, we can conclude that the composition still emanated from the Arnstadt period. The chorale melody lies in the bass. It is arranged line by line with the usual “pre-imitation”; the conclusion is constructed as an ingrisification by way of canonic bearing of the two last chorale lines in the double pedal. 8) Trio G major by Telemann, BWV 586. Whether the adaptation of this two-part Telemann allegro for the organ really originates from Bach is uncertain. The gay, extrovert movement is a credit to its composer. 9) Aria F major by François Couperin, BWV 587. This piece is, almost note for note and without any changes indicating an arrangement, the middle section marked “Légerement” from the Troisieme Ordre of the Couperin trio sonatas published in 1726 under the title “Les Nations”. A copy from the vicinity of Bach in which the name of the author was missing was the reason for the false accreditation. This, as well as the previous piece, show that one was capable of playing as an organ trio on two manuals and pedal, frequently without any alteration, movements from trio sonatas for two melody instruments and basso continuo. 10) Fantasia C minor. Max Seiffert published this work for the first time. It was handed down in the so-called "Andreas Bach Book", a collection of manuscripts from the vicinity of Bach at the beginning of the 18th century, without any note as to author and in German organ tablature. Judging from its strength of combination, the excellent work could certainly have come from the young Bach. 11) Fugue G major, BWV 577. The mobile work in gigue rhythm, which is worthy of attention if only because of the convincing use of the pedal, is from the point of view of origins only weakly authenticated as a Bach composition: from the point of view of its style, one could hardly deny that it originated from the young Bach. by Georg von Dadelsen English translation by Frederick A. Bishop This critical and complete stylistic survey of Bach's organ works is the fifht part and will be continued by further releases.
Johann Sebastian Bach - DAS ORGELWERK