Bach: Great Organ Works (1997)

Helmut Walcha Plays Bach

For the past 28 years, the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. has presented a free five-hour Bach Organ Marathon early in March to celebrate J.S. Bach's birthday of March 21. Leading organists from the D.C. area together with lovers of the organ come together to hear the icy and improvisatory glory of Bach's organ music. I was fortunate to attend the Bach Marathon on March 6 of this year (2005), and in many subsequent years, including 2017, and to have access to many other recitals of organ music in the Washington D.C. area. The Bach Marathon this past March inspired me to revisit an anthology of some of Bach's most famous compositions for the organ in this two-volume CD by Helmut Walcha.

Helmut Walcha (1907-1991) once said: "Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all." Walcha's love for and mastery of Bach's organ works resonates through this compilation. Walcha lost his sight at the age of sixteen and learned Bach's entire and immense body of work for the organ, together with much other music, by memory through hearing the various lines played separately on the piano. Walcha spent 15 years memorizing the works of Bach, from age 25 through age 40.

The works on this set are compiled from a much larger collection of Bach's organ music that Walcha recorded in the 1950s and 1960s available in a larger box set on DG. The works on the first CD were recorded on the Great Organ in the Saint-Laurens Church, Alkmaar, the Netherlands while the works on the second CD were recorded on the organ of the Saint-Pierre le-Jeune Church, Strasbourg, France. The later organ, to me, has a softer, reedier tone.

The compilation opens with Bach's most famous organ composition, the early Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. It includes an additional three toccatas and fugues, a fantasy and fugue, several separate preludes and fugues, a trio sonata, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, a set of variations on the hymn "Vom Himmel hoch" BWV 769, and six of the so "Schubler Chorales" including the well-known setting of "Wachtet auf". Thus the CD presents an excellent cross-section of the many types of works and musical forms Bach used in composing for the organ.

Walcha plays a large, muscular, and angular Bach. This is steely and disciplined music, elevated and uplifting. It is music to be returned to again and again. I particularly enjoyed the Passacaglia and Fugue, BWV 582, the Schubler chorales, the G major Fantasia, BWV 572, and the variations, BWV 769. But this entire compilation is masterful.

There are many music-lovers with great knowledge of the music repertory, including knowledge of Bach, who have little knowledge of the organ. Perhaps this is because in order to get to hear this music live, listeners need to make an effort to attend rare recitals in churches rather than in the more familiar musical venues of the secular concert or recital hall. But this music is glorious. This two volume compilation by Walcha's is the best way for the music-lover to get a basic familiarity with the grandeur of Bach's compositions for the pipe organ.

Robin Friedman