The Brilliant label has been flooding the market with Bach organ recordings—some revelatory, others merely adequate, a few frankly pedestrian. Where does this particular entry land?
Let me be direct. The programming here is intelligent, even shrewd. Framing the eight Schübler chorales with those monumental preludes and fugues creates a satisfying architectural logic, alternating between intimate devotional utterance and grand rhetorical gesture. The Schübler collection—BWV 645–650, six of them here along with BWV 649 and 650—represents Bach at his most refined, transcriptions of cantata movements that distill profound theological meditation into pure instrumental poetry. They require a very different temperament from the D Minor Toccata and Fugue, that endlessly abused warhorse.
And yes, BWV 565 opens this disc. My heart sank initially—how many times can one endure those theatrical opening gestures, those plunging octaves that have soundtracked everything from Disney’s Fantasia to shopping mall Halloween displays? But the performer (regrettably, Brilliant’s documentation leaves much to be desired regarding biographical details) approaches the fugue with uncommon clarity. The counterpoint emerges with crystalline precision, each voice maintaining its independence without that muddy wash of sound that plagues so many performances on overly reverberant instruments. There’s a harpsichordist’s sensibility here—light, articulate, rhythmically vital.
The Treutmann organ at Goslar-Grauhof proves an ideal collaborator. Built in the North German tradition, it possesses that distinctive brightness of timbre, that clarity of speech in the upper registers that serves these works magnificently. The church acoustic is generous without being bloated; pedal notes decay naturally rather than lingering like unwelcome guests. In “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” the registration choices reveal genuine imagination—the chorale melody sings with a gentle sweetness while the accompanying voices dance beneath with nuanced animation.
But here things become complicated.
The technical execution is generally secure, though I caught a slightly smudged passage in the C Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 546—nothing catastrophic, but enough to notice. More troubling is a certain interpretive blandness that creeps in during the larger-scale works. The B Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 544, that magnificent structure with its almost orchestral opening gestures, wants more drama, more contrast between sections. The performer plays it beautifully, certainly, but beauty alone doesn’t quite suffice when Bach is thinking in terms of rhetorical argument, of tension and release across an expansive canvas.
The Schübler chorales fare better. “Meine Seele erhebt den Herren“—Mary’s Magnificat—receives a performance of genuine devotional warmth, the manuals dialogue creating that sense of intimate conversation Bach surely intended. “Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ” unfolds with appropriate gravity, though I’ve heard other organists find more poignancy in those descending chromatic lines.
The F Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 534, gets a solid if unspectacular performance. The prelude’s almost improvisatory character comes through well enough, but the fugue—with its elaborate subject and complex development—could use more rhythmic drive, more sense of inevitable forward momentum.
Release quality is distinguished: clear, present, detailed without being clinical. The engineers have captured the organ’s tonal palette faithfully, and the ambient bloom of the church acoustic adds warmth without obscuring detail.
So where does this leave us? This is competent, often lovely Bach playing on a fine instrument, well recorded and intelligently programmed. For collectors seeking yet another version of these works, it offers good value—Brilliant’s pricing makes it hard to resist. But it doesn’t displace the great recordings in this repertoire. For the Schübler chorales, I still return to Helmut Walcha’s profound performances, or Marie-Claire Alain’s combination of technical mastery and spiritual depth. For the big preludes and fugues, Peter Hurford’s survey remains indispensable.
This disc will satisfy, certainly. It won’t transform your understanding of Bach’s organ music. A respectable addition to the catalog, nothing more.
