Johann Sebastian Bach - Organ Works Vol. 3 (Masaaki Suzuki)

Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

• (01) Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 531
• (03) Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537
• (05) Chorale Preludes: 'Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr', BWV 717, 711 & 715
• (08) Chorale Partita on 'Ach was soll ich Sünder machen?', BWV 770
• (18) Toccata in C major, BWV 566a
• (19) Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546
• (21) Chorale Preludes: 'Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', BWV 709 & 726
• (23) Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Masaaki Suzuki, organ
Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/label/bis/masaaki-suzuki-plays-bach-organ-works-vol-3

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Review

If Masaaki Suzuki’s sacred cantata series was necessarily chronological, clearly evident in this new journey – on the basis of the three volumes so far – is how the architecture of the programming is built on narratives amalgamating all of Bach’s organ-writing genres: the stylus phantasticus of preludes, toccatas, fantasias and fugues intersecting closely with all forms of chorale preludes, variations and miscellany.

In this regard, Suzuki is a class act in every component of his planning. All roads lead to the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor but we reach this peak through both a subtle manipulation of the magnetic tonal worlds of C major and C minor, and striking contrasts of quasi-juvenilia (for example, the freewheeling and surging peels of the early Böhm-inspired Prelude and Fugue in C) and mature masterpieces – of which the equivalent work in C minor allows us the first gaze towards the promised land of the Passacaglia.

Yet Suzuki’s greatest challenge lies in taming the remarkably evergreen and resourceful Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral. He draws on all its inherent glories: the dazzling couplers, the earthy French reeds, luminous flutes and those specifically German concentrated chests of projected sound and hearty, marauding bass lines. Suzuki’s skill in imaginative registration is heard to beautiful effect in the chorale partita (a genre of variation for which Bach wrote three distinguished examples) Ach was soll ich Sünder machen. That the work’s authenticity is questionable matters not a jot.

Likewise, Suzuki brings wonderful emollience to the first chorale on ‘Herr Jesu Christ’ (BWV709) but it’s the big C minor works that bring aspirational zeal to this volume. The Prelude and Fugue is fully charged with nervous energy and inexorable purpose, while the Passacaglia is a masterclass in keeping powder dry, knowing when to light the various fuses and being infectiously consequential. For all Bach lovers, not just organists!

-- Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Oct/Bach_organ_v3_BIS2421.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/masaaki-suzuki-plays-bach-organ-works-vol-3-passacaglia-in-c-minor-mw0003292582
https://www.amazon.com/Masaaki-Suzuki-plays-Organ-Works/dp/B07T254BC1

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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Masaaki Suzuki (born 29 April 1954 in Kobe) is an award-winning Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of J. S. Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. Suzuki has also recorded music of Mozart, Handel, Beethoven and many others. He is Artist-in residence at Yale University and director of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Suzuki

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