BACH - LISZT - Organ Works
Daniel Chorzempa - Organ

PTC 5186 127

DSD remastered

THE EPITOME OF ORGAN MUSIC

ohann Sebastian Bach left behind compositions in just about every musical genre of the day – except for opera. Mainly due to the varying professional fields in which he worked, Bach gained access to new genres step by step. This enabled him during the course of his career to achieve a well-nigh incredible versatility, which is more than just an indication of the outstanding role he played in the history of music.

As far as the organ is concerned, one quite simply has to describe Bach as a genius – and in Bach’s case, this is equally valid as far as his brilliant playing, his masterly composition and his intimate knowledge of the instrument are concerned. He was a master in both the intermingling and the perfecting of numerous diverging traditional styles. In his younger years – while he was still studying the organ with his brother Johann Christoph, and also during his appointments as organist in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen (1703-1708) – Bach examined all sources of music available to him with the greatest of intensity, to see how he could use and learn from them. Thus, he taught himself through studying works by composers from the south and middle of Germany, such as Froberger and Pachelbel, as well as those by composers from the north, such as Buxtehude. But he also interwove Italian and French musical styles into the composition of his organ works. The works recorded on this SACD are all so-called “free” organ works, in contrast to his chorale compositions.
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 – probably written between 1704 and 1708 – is very likely the most popular organ composition ever composed by Bach. (If it was indeed written by Bach: there are doubts about the authenticity of this work to this day.) It demonstrates an impetuous youthfulness and insistent attitude, and is a stroke of utter genius. With its tempestuous unisono descending runs, its racing passage work and its agonizing diminished harmonies, it provides a fantastic mirror image of the possibilities offered by the instrument for virtuoso performance. The Fugue takes over the demanding, insistent character of the first movement (Adagio) and carries it forward to an abrupt end, before the outbursts of the Toccata-Coda finally return to peace and calm in a gigantic final cadenza. This work truly meets all demands made of “toccare i tasti”, i.e. of “touching/playing the keys.”

As far as popularity is concerned, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 in no way yields pride of place to the D-minor Toccata. Incidentally, this “Monument einsamer Größe” (Hoffmann-Erbrecht) is the only Passacaglia for the organ written by Bach – quite astonishing, when one thinks of his masterly treatment of the bass part in vocal music. Originally, the Passacaglia was a slow Spanish dance, out of which was created an independent instrumental movement, in which variations are developed over a constantly repeated bass theme. The bass theme is presented on the pedals, followed by 20 variations which become increasingly complex, to put it simply. The finale is a tremendous, four-voice Fugue on the Passacaglia theme, which is gradually intensified. Following a Neapolitan sixth chord with a fermata, the final notes of the Fugue die away in the radiant key of C major.

As in many other organ works by Bach, we cannot be sure of the date of composition of the coupled Preludes and Fugues.

The Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 follows the basic type of pedaliter Prelude – mainly manualiter Fugue – pedaliter Coda. The Prelude has a superior character of expression and its main priority is to fulfil its preparatory task as the introduction to the Fugue. The theme of the Fugue itself is derived from examples by Corelli and Pachelbel, and the tone is set with the entry of the four voices during the exposition. The concentration on the one theme permits Bach to repeatedly choose and play around with components of the theme, before the structure of the Fugue gradually resolves into block-like chords and ends in a flourish similar to that of the Prelude.

Similarly, the date of composition of the Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532 has not been ascertained. The Prelude contains various sections with contrasting subject matter: scales, accumulations of chords and figured passages at the start, a concertante middle section and the magnificent, double-pedal Adagio at the conclusion. “The ensuing Fugue is set out in an extremely virtuoso manner, in which the motifs, inherent in the Theme, revolve around each other and can therefore, never move on.” Fragments of the themes can be heard rambling through the voices, thereby obscuring a clear arrangement of the structure.

Franz Liszt wrote his Variations on the chromatically descending lamento bass from Bach’s Cantata BWV 12, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, in 1862. (Admittedly, the most recent research suggests that the work may well have been written at an earlier date, on the occasion of Runstein’s visit to Weimar in 1854.) The version for organ, which is much better known, was composed in 1863. Liszt treats the theme by no means in a purely virtuoso manner, but rather in a subtle manner, as the foundation for a Passacaglia, after which the movement becomes increasingly intensified and takes on greater rhythmic complexity. The harmonic suspension also fits in with the vague scene. The composition concludes with an apotheosic quote from the Chorale “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan,” which Bach had also used in the final movement of his cantata.