J. S. Bach

NEW! Kevin Clarke plays the organ at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. It was designed and built by C. B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Opus 99 of the Fisk firm – a three-manual instrument – has 46 stops totaling 2,976 pipes, housed in a polychromed case. The late Charles Fisk, in consultation with Rice University's Professor of Organ Clyde Holloway, designed the preliminary specification in 1981. The stoplist reflects the many roles a modern American church organ must play: leading hymn singing, accompanying choral music and playing 400 years of organ repertoire with authority. The contract for the organ was signed in 1984 shortly after Charles's death, affirming the church's faith in his successors.

FIRST AMERICAN CD RECORDING! The success of Bach's B-minor Mass has obscured a number of his shorter masterpieces of the same genre. Written in the 1730s, these masses could be performed in both Catholic and Lutheran liturgies. Sometimes misleadingly called "The Lutheran Masses," Bach used them to gain recognition from the Catholic court of Dresden. Later he was to take one of these masses and expand it into the full B-minor Mass so popular today. The Washington Bach Consort, directed by J. Reilly Lewis, is one of America's leading Bach ensembles, having recently performed the entire 5-year cycle of Bach cantatas. In this first volume of the complete Bach masses, they explore some of the B-minor Mass's lesser-known, but equally interesting, companions. Program notes by eminent Bach scholar Christoph Wolff.

NEW! Playing on the colorful Ahrend Organ at St. Otto in Herzogenaurach, Martin Neu plays a fascinating program that demonstrates the influences of Georg Böhm and Dietrich Buxtehude on J.S. Bach. Choir & Organ rates the recording at four stars (out of possible five).
Recorded in high quality SACD format to play on all CD and SACD players.

On two CDs, George Ritchie performs the Art of Fugue on the Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ in Scottsdale, Arizona, and other works on three other organs. A DVD with a feature length film and an interesting lecture is also part of this noteworthy new set.

14 Organs, 17 Discs and all of Bach's organ works

Frédéric Desenclos, student of Litaize and Isoir and assistant organist at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, performs the Well-Tempered Clavier on four organs in France and the Netherlands.

Bálint Karosi plays Richard, Fowkes & Co. Opus 10 built in 2000 for First Lutheran Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

Helmut Lerperger plays the Freundt organ of 1642 built for Klosterneuburg's Stiftskirche and a smaller choir organ begun in 1780 by Anton Pfliegler and restored by Kuhn.

SPECIAL PRICE George Ritchie's acclaimed recordings of the Bach organ works on nine American-built pipe organs on 11 CDs! Extensive notes document the organs, the registrations, and George Stauffer writes extensively on the works. Organs include the magna opera of organbuilders Paul Fritts, Taylor & Boody, John Brombaugh, Martin Pasi, and C. B. Fisk, and other large organs by Fritts-Richards, Munetaka Yokota, and Noack, all built in tonal and mechanical styles known to J. S. Bach. Click the headline for more description and to order and to see each volume in this set, also available separately.

Famed organist, teacher, organ theorist, builder, and writer Robert Noehren plays works of J. S. Bach on the Rieger organ at Pacific Union College Church, Angwin, California.

Playing pipes once played by Mozart, Martin Schmeding interprets the Goldberg Variations at Dresden's Hofkirche.

At Störmthal, William Porter thoroughly demonstrates Zacharias Hildebrandt's first organ.

NEW! Florence Mustric plays Bach on the Beckerath in Cleveland

Mezzo soprano Alexandra Röseler and soloists of the Thomanerchores Leipzig, the choir of the famous Thomaskirche, (under the direction of Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller) perform selections from both the 1722 and 1725 editions of the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Both Biller and Röseler play the organ and sing on this recording; Even the boys of the Thomanerchor perform on the piano, demonstrating not only that Bach works were to be used for teaching, but also the quality musicianship still being taught at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

The recording was made at the Bethanienkirche in Leipzig. The organ was built in 1994 by the Klop firm. Carola Christoph, lute, and Harmut Becker, Cello/ Viola da gamba, join on several tracks.

Bach organ restored!
Organist Jean Claude Zehnder plays works from throughout Bach's life to demonstrate the newly restored Hildebrandt organ (which Bach had a hand in building) at the Wenzelkirche in Naumburg, Germany. Hear the largest and one of the most important "Bach" organs as it may have sounded in Bach's lifetime.

Jean-Claude Zehnder plays works drawn from this fascinating document on the Schnitger organ known to Bach in St. Jacob’s Church, Hamburg.

Organist Heinrich Hamm plays works of J.S. Bach on an historical wonder, the 1750 Gabler organ at the Basilika Weingarten in Southern Germany.

J.S. Bach · F. Mendelssohn
Œuvres pour orgue
Organist Pascale Rouet plays works of Bach and Mendelssohn on the 1997 Yves Kœnig organ at the Basilica Notre-Dame d'Espérance de Charleville-Mézières in Northeastern France.
This disc earned a rating of 5 from France's Diapason magazine.

Joan Lippincott plays the beautiful organ built by Paul Fritts at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Special Price! $9.99 Murray Forbes Somerville plays the famous Flentrop at Busch Hall, Harvard University, in the major works from Clavierübung Part III.

2-CDs for the Price of One! Michael Ferguson, whose completion of Contrapunctus 14 (which Bach left unfinished) is published and highly regarded, plays the entire work on the 56-rank Schantz in the receptive acoustic of the Church of St. Leo the Great, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The difficult Goldberg Variations belong to that select group of works which remain convincing, whatever the instrument. The organ offers a technical means for dividing various voices and for choosing a registration which matches the character of the variation. The Schnitger-Ahrend organ in Georgeskirche, Weener, offers fine acoustics and many chamber-music registration possibilities. Abram Bezuijen is the organist. Click on the headline to order.

The Art of Fugue is played by Gerd Zacher on the 1714 Balthasar König organ at the former monastery church in Niederehe, Germany. The organ was thoroughly restored in 1998 by the shop of Hubert Fasen. It is the only König organ to be heard with the original tuning and temperament from the era it was built.

Gillian Weir plays organs built by her late husband Lawrence Phelps: the Casavant of the Deer Park United Church in Toronto and the Phelps organ of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Fort Collins, Colorado. Schübler Chorales; Clavierübung III; Chorale Partita O Gott, du frommer Gott; Pastorale in F

Pierre Bardon, titulaire for more than 40 years at St. Maximin, Aix-en-Provence, and its important 1774 Isnard organ, brings maturity and spiritual depth to the “Great 18" Bach chorales. Click on the headline to order.

What if the greatest keyboard players of the first half of the 18th century — Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel — all born in 1650, had met in a contest of technical brillance and quickness of invention? This recording imagines these remarkable musicians thus competing. David Yearsley plays the large Fisk organ at Stanford Memorial Church, Stanford University. Click on the headline for more information and to order.

John Ayer plays the famous Flentrop with which E. Power Biggs is forever associated for both his radio program and his advocacy of its tonal qualities. If these CDs are played in a computer, many pictures of the organ and Biggs are displayed as the music plays. Also accessible from the CD is an Adobe Acrobat file containing Barbara Owen’s account of the organ’s creation for Busch Hall at Harvard. Click picture for repertoire

The Orgelbüchlein as well as five more pieces are played by George Ritchie on the magnificent 83-rank magnum opus of Paul Fritts at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. This 2-CD set (at the price of one CD) is Volume 5 in George Ritchie’s series of all of the organ works by Bach. Click on the picture for more information

Johannes Geffert plays works of Bach for instruments or voice and which have been transcribed for organ. The organ was built in 1927 by Josef Behmann of Vorarlburg for St. Martin’s in Dornbirn, Austria, and restored with no changes in 1986 by the Swiss firm Kuhn. Wolfgang Rehn of the Kuhn firm wrote about this famous restoration in Acta Organologica XXII, “The insight that each style of music is best . . . played on the original instruments of the period should certainly not be limited to ancient music . . .” The transcriptions are by Guilmant, Widor, Landmann, Karg-Elert, E. Power Biggs, and W. T. Best Click picture for repertoire

Playing the gorgeous 62-rank Fritts organ at Princeton Theological Seminary, Joan Lippincott is joined by an excellent instrumental ensemble in the unusual organ obbligato movements of seven of J. S. Bach's Cantatas which they play in appropriate fast-slow-fast sequences to produce three concertos, using Bach’s own arrangements for large organ and ensemble.

Nicholas White, organist of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in New York City, plays the Six Schübler Chorales, BWV 645-650, of J. S. Bach on the beautiful and justly famous 3-55 organ built by Rudolph von Beckerath in 1967. Also, Prelude & Fugue in B minor, BWV 544; "Come now, the holiest of Holies," BWV 659, and Prelude & Fugue in A minor, BWV 543

Michael Pohl plays the completely restored-as-built 1905 Sauer 4-136 in the Berlin Cathedral, the largest Wilhelm Sauer organ ever built and representing the ultimate development of the orchestral organ in the high Romantic period. Works: 2 Preludes & Fugues in D; Passacaglia in c; Chorales Wachet auf, Schmücke dich, Nun danket, and Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit Click ikon for further description

The Dresden organbuilder Kristian Wegscheider is likely to have a large part of the project of making a new Silbermann for the Frauenkirche such as this “new” Silbermann of 20 registers at the church in Loschwitz.

in Germany, where J. S. Bach was born. The handsome, tall, booklet describes with color photos and English text three instruments: a Silbermann spinet, a ca. 1715 German harpsichord, and a 3-rank house organ, all located in the Bach House. The instruments are well played and recorded on the CD in works by J. S. B.

Hubert Meister plays Trio Sonatas Nos. 1-6 BWV 525-520, on the Gottfried Silbermann organs in Grosshartmannsdorf and Forcheim.

Jonathan Biggers plays the 1992 Paul Fritts organ, Arizona State University. Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C; Partita Sei Gegrusset, Jesu gütig; Preludes & Fugues in A & a; Passacaglia in c; Chorale Preludes Schmücke dich & Wenn wir in höchsten

at Duke University on the Flentrop magnum opus. Included are Bach’s four great Toccatas and Fugues plus the Prelude and Fugue in C and the Passacaglia.

Douglas Major’s performances of masterworks by Bach take advantage of the excellent acoustics of Washington National Cathedral. Toccata & Fugue in d Dorian; Toccata in F, Passacaglia & Fugue in c; Pastorale in F; Prelude & Fugue in e Cathedral; Prelude & Fugue in E-flat St. Anne; Fantasia on Komm, heiliger Geist

Christopher Herrick plays the beautiful 1978 Metzler at Villmergen, Switzerland. after VIVALDI: Concerti in C, a, d; after CORELLI: Fugue on a Theme of Corelli in b; after ERNST: Concerti in G; C (movement); after LEGRENZI: Fugue on a theme of Legrenzi in c

This CD gathers famous Bach works in settings by later composers to record with period material the grand 1904 Wilhelm Sauer 3-49 at the Evangelical Church in Dormund-Dorstfeld, Germany. Tomasz Adam Nowak plays musically with energy and commitment.