Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750 Toccata & Fugue Famous Organ Music Compact Disc 1
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15 16
from 18 Chorale Preludes† Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV659 à 2 Clav. et Ped. Trio super Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr BWV664
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Passacaglia in C minor BWV582*
14’15
Compact Disc 2
79’18
4’37 5’30
70’55
1 2
Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565* Toccata Fugue
2’22 6’20
3 4 5 6
from the Orgelbüchlein† Gott, durch deine Güte (or: Gottes Sohn ist kommen) BWV600 Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich BWV605 à 2 Clav. et Ped. Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar BWV607 In dulci jubilo BWV608
7 8 9
1 2
Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV542‡ Fantasia Fugue
5’16 6’45
1’14 1’46 1’12 1’38
3 4
from the Schübler Chorales‡ Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV645 Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter BWV650
4’21 3’39
Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C BWV564† Toccata Adagio Fugue
5’49 4’31 5’02
5 6 7
Trio Sonata in C BWV529‡ I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro
5’18 6’26 3’41
10 11
from the Orgelbüchlein† Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV639 Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein BWV641
2’19 1’48
8 9
from the Orgelbüchlein‡ O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß BWV622 Hilf, Gott, daß mir’s gelinge BWV624
5’44 1’13
12 13 14
Concerto in A minor BWV593 (after Vivaldi)† I. Allegro II. Recitative: Adagio III. Allegro
3’54 3’30 3’55
10 11
Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV538† Toccata Fugue
5’46 9’33
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J.S. Bach’s organ music: the ‘utmost perfection’
12 13
from the Clavierübung – Part III§ Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam BWV684 Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele BWV654 à 2 Clav. et Ped.
4’06 9’00
14 15
Prelude and Fugue in G BWV541‡ Prelude Fugue
3’00 4’28
Stefano Molardi *Johann Christoph Thielemann organ (1728–31), Dreifältigkeitskirche, Gräfenhain †Zacharias Hildebrandt organ (1728), Jakobikirche, Sangerhausen ‡T.H.G. Trost organ, Stadtkirche ‘Zur Gotteshilfe’, Waltershausen §Gottfried Silbermann organ, Hofkirche, Dresden
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Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach’s lengthy obituary of his father (written in collaboration with Johann Friedrich Agricola) asserted that those who had the pleasure of hearing him at the organ could have no doubt either that he was the most forceful and accomplished player of his day or that his compositions for the instrument represented utmost perfection. Even allowing for a degree of filial piety in this, it certainly seems to be the case that Bach’s reputation as composer for and performer on the organ was unrivalled in an age which was not lacking in giants of the medium. The majority of his organ compositions date from the first part of his career when he was church organist at Arnstadt (1703–7) and Mülhausen (1707–8), and then court organist and later Konzertmeister in Weimar (1708–17). However, Bach made no great effort to collect or publish the enormous number of organ works written during the course of his professional career. Only one of the ‘free’ compositions (i.e. those based on an original rather than an existing melody) was ever published during his lifetime, and very few examples survive in his autograph, making it difficult or impossible to assign precise dates and in many cases to be absolutely certain about their authorship. Therefore, there is much information concerning the background and purpose of Bach’s organ compositions that remains frustratingly speculative. The Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition groups them together in two categories, the ‘free’ works (BWV 525–598) and those based on chorale themes (BWV 599–771), with the more recently discovered works, like the Neumeister Chorales, added at the end. Consequently, this numbering does not provide a reliable chronology for date of composition. The six Trio Sonatas (BWV 525–530) were compiled during Bach’s early years in Leipzig for the purpose, according to his first biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel, of assisting Wilhelm Friedemann Bach to improve his keyboard technique. Each piece is referred to as a ‘Sonata for two keyboards and pedal’, with each hand and the feet assigned a separate musical line. This calls for considerable physical and mental dexterity on the player’s part, making the notion that they were designed as practice aids perfectly plausible. Apart from BWV530, which appears to have been composed in its entirety for the set, the other five sonatas combine original with pre-existing material; in BWV529 the second movement probably predates the first, and the third may be a transcription of a movement for larger instrumental forces. The ‘free’ works (BWV 531–582) – the Preludes, Toccatas, Fantasias and Passacaglia – served various functions; such as ‘voluntaries’ performed before and
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after the liturgical music of the service, for the display of Bach’s own expertise, the examination of students or candidates for official posts, and the testing or inauguration of new instruments – for example BWV538, the ‘Dorian’ Toccata and Fugue, for the new organ at Kassel. While these works are classed as ‘free’ compositions, it is impossible to discount the influences of his great contemporaries whom he heard in person or whose works he studied (such as Buxtehude, Pachelbel and Reincken), and of the French and Italian composers whose works he assiduously copied. The Passacaglia BWV582 is thought to be based on a theme by the French composer André Raison, and the work with which Bach is most closely associated in the public imagination – the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565 – may actually be an arrangement for organ of an original work for violin, possibly not even by Bach himself. Bach made several keyboard arrangements or transcriptions of instrumental concertos, five specifically for the organ (BWV 592–596). Three of these are based on concertos by Vivaldi (BWV593 is of the concerto for two violins RV522 Op.3 No.8), the other two of works by Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, nephew of his then employer. Johann, an enthusiastic student of music, attended the University of Utrecht between 1711 and 1713 where he acquired several Italian works – probably including the Vivaldi Op.3 set, which had been published in Amsterdam in 1711. The transcriptions of Johann Ernst’s works may have been made at his direct request, or in an attempt to court his favour, or even in memoriam after his early death in 1715, while those of the Vivaldi concerti may have been intended as a means by which Bach could increase his knowledge of (and mastery over) the Italian style, or as exercises in the reduction of complex instrumental scores for the keyboard. This latter possibility is suggested by the indication of solo and tutti passages and the differentiation of the solo instrumental lines in the score of BWV593. The Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) BWV 599–644 takes its name from the relatively small dimensions of the manuscript (15.5cm by 19cm) and contains works that were mainly written in Weimar. The manuscript title page indicates that Bach began the compilation after he had taken up the post of Kappelmeister at Cöthen in 1717, where writing for and playing the organ no longer formed a principal part of his duties. The purpose of the collection is described as the instruction of the ‘beginning organist’ in the working-out of chorales ‘in a multitude of ways’ and in the use of the pedal. Bach’s original intention had been to create a cycle of 164 chorale preludes covering the liturgical year and other aspects of Christian life and worship, with separate pages in the autograph
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set aside for each proposed chorale whose title was specified in the heading. In the event, only 46 were completed, most of which were for use during Advent (BWV600), Christmas (BWV608), Passiontide (BWV 622 and 624) and Easter. Only a few of those intended to illustrate scriptural passages and ‘Christian life and conduct’ were completed – including BWV 639 and 641 – the majority of the pages remaining blank. In 1839 Mendelssohn acquired what he believed to be Bach’s autograph of the work (it was in fact a contemporary copy) and edited it for first publication in its entirety. The first collection of organ works issued by Bach himself appeared in 1739 as the third volume of the Clavierübung (BWV 669–689). This collection is sometimes referred to as the ‘German Organ Mass’, and comprises 21 chorale preludes (nine for the Mass and twelve for the Catechism) together with a prelude and fugue with four duetto movements. The title page states that it was prepared ‘for music lovers and especially connoisseurs’, and it is probable that all the pieces (apart from BWV687) were composed especially for the collection. BWV684 is one of two baptismal hymns to the Lutheran text Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam, and its running semiquavers imitate the flowing waters of the river. Ten years later Bach published a further set of six pieces, the Schübler Chorales, so-called after their publisher Johann Schübler of Zella. Five are literal transcriptions of existing cantata movements (BWV645 of Cantata 140 and BWV650 of Cantata 137). In 1739 he began assembling another collection of chorales, which became known as the ‘Great Eighteen’ or ‘Leipzig’ chorales (BWV 651–688). Both titles are slight misnomers as there are in fact only 17 – the final one (BWV688) being added to the manuscript after Bach’s death – and most of the works were first written during his Weimar period. This collection encompasses works of enormous variety, scope and artistry. Schumann described BWV654 ‘as priceless and profound a piece of music as ever sprang from an artist’s imagination’. They include several different settings of the same melody, and might have been intended as the basis of an overview of his achievement as a composer for the organ, curtailed by his increasing blindness and left unfinished at his death. 훿 David Moncur
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Born in Cremona, Stefano Molardi is an organist, musicologist, harpsichordist and conductor. His musical training was supported by renowned musicians such as Ewald Kooiman, Christopher Stembridge, Harald Vogel, Luigi Tagliavini and especially Michael Radulescu, with whom he studied in Vienna and for whom he played continuo in the Académie Bach of Porrentruy (Switzerland). Having received awards at several organ competitions, including Paisan di Prato (Udine) in 1998, Viterbo in 1996, and Brugge and the Paul Hofhaimer in Innsbruck, Molardi now pursues a busy career as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, playing in prestigious concert venues (including Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Sala São Paulo in Brazil, the Musikverein and Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, among others) and at many international festivals, including Musica e Poesia a S. Maurizio in Milan, the Festival Organistico Internazionale of Treviso, the Festival di Musica Antica in Valvasone, the International Festival of Maastricht, the Wiener Orgelkonzerte, the Historic Organs Festival in Arnstadt, the Organ Festival of Nuremberg and the Festival of Magadino. In 2009 he performed the complete organ works of Liszt and Franck in Lugano. He is professor of organ at conservatoires in Lugano and Trapani, and holds international masterclasses and conferences on Baroque performance practice. He has made recordings for Tactus, Christophorus, Deutsche Grammophon, SWR, MEZZO, Radio France and Radio Suisse Romande; between 2003 and 2010 he recorded the organ music of Merulo on four CDs for Divox, and for the same label he made various recordings as conductor of the Baroque orchestra I Virtuosi delle Muse, receiving warm reviews and international recognition. As a conductor, Molardi has performed throughout Europe and the US, with notable performances including J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, St John Passion and Magnificat (Ferrara), Mozart’s Requiem (Crotone), and operas such as Luchesi’s Ademira (Teatro Dovizi in Bibbiena), Porpora’s Mitridate (Teatro Caldéron in Valladolid) and Farnace and Giustino by Vivaldi (both at the Theater an der Wien and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris). In 2013 he became conductor of the Accademia Barocca Italiana, a period-instrument ensemble specialising in Italian and German music of the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Also available on Brilliant Classics
Recordings: 25–28 September 2013, Gräfenhain, Thuringia, Germany (CD1: 1–2; 17); 26–28 August 2013, Jakobikirche, Sangerhausen, Germany (CD1: 3–16; CD2: 10–11); 29 April–3 May 2013, Stadtkirche, Waltershausen, Thuringia, Germany (CD2: 1–9, 14–15); 12–15 August 2013, Hofkirche, Dresden, Germany (CD2: 12–13) Sound engineer & art direction: Simone Bellucci 2014 & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics
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J.S. Bach: Complete Organ Music Vol.1 94850 4CD
J.S. Bach: Complete Organ Music Vol.2 94792 4CD
J.S. Bach: Complete Organ Music Vol.3 94981 3CD
C.P.E. Bach: Complete Organ Music 94812 2CD
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