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Track(s) taken from CDA67211/2

Prelude in A minor, BWV569

composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Christopher Herrick (organ)
Recording details: November 1996
Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland
Produced by Paul Spicer
Engineered by Paul Niederberger
Release date: June 1997
Total duration: 5 minutes 0 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

David Goode (organ)

Reviews

‘Just as, in my youth, I almost preferred to lick the scrapings from the bowls in which my mother had prepared cakes than to savout the finished product, so I am tempted almost to prefer these crumbs from the table of a great genius to those stupendous musical feats which are everybody's idea of the real J S Bach. Here is music every bit as worthy of close attention as anything Bach wrote for the organ. Herrick displays immaculate taste. This is playing of the very highest order … superlative artistry’ (Gramophone)

‘An attractive way of gathering up some of Bach's less obvious masterpieces, and they are all splendidly played, and recorded on a fine Swiss organ’ (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

«Christopher Herrick possède une technique supérieure et un grand toucher. Il nous fait parcourir ces pages de jeunesse avec une fraîcheur, une bonne humeur, un lyrisme et une entrain communicatif» (Le Monde de la Musique, France)
Metrical ambiguity is a feature of the Prelude in A minor, BWV569. After a brief introductory flourish, Bach works out his four-note motif, which the ear can interpret as being in either 3/4 or 6/8, with extraordinary consistency and thoroughness, taking it on a twofold harmonic journey, first flat-wards into F major and then sharp-wards to the dominant and briefly F sharp minor. The semiquavers return to round off one of the most satisfying of all Bach’s early organ works.

from notes by Stephen Westrop © 1997

Metrische Vieldeutigkeit ist eines der Merkmale des Präludiums in a Moll, BWV569. Nach einer kurzen einleitenden Fanfare entwickelt Bach sein aus vier Noten bestehendes Motiv, dessen Taktart sowohl als 3/4 als auch als 6/8 ausgelegt werden kann, mit außergewöhnlicher Konsequenz und Gründlichkeit, wobei er dieses Motiv auf eine zweigleisige harmonische Reise schickt, zuerst gen Erniedrigung nach Fdur und anschließend gen Erhöhung zur Dominante und kurzweilig auch nach fis-Moll. Nachfolgend kehren die Sechzehntel zurück, um dieses Meisterwerk früher Bachscher Orgelmusik zu beschließen.

aus dem Begleittext von Stephen Westrop © 1997
Deutsch: Manuela Hübner

Other albums featuring this work

Bach: The Complete Organ Works
Christopher Herrick (organ)
CDS44121/3616CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only
Bach: The Complete Organ Works, Vol. 11
David Goode (organ)
Studio Master: SIGCD811Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

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