Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750)
        Organ Works, Volume 1

Kirnberger Chorales BWV 690-691, 694-695, 696-701,
   703-704, 706, 709-713
Prelude & Fugue in C minor BWV 531
Prelude & Fugue in E major BWV 533
Prelude & Fugue in C major BWV 549
Prelude & Fugue in A minor BWV 551

CPO 999663 - Recorded August 1997
Gerhard Weinberger, Organ
TT 73:15

Gerhard Weinberger has been traversing for CPO the complete Bach organ
works and already has quite a few volumes released.  I'm coming late
to this series but will try to catch up with this cycle which has been
receiving mixed reviews.  The basic criticism of the reviews is that
Weinberger displays a rather rigid and austere view of Bach's music with
some loss of poetry and expressiveness.  However, there are a few reviewers
who consider Weinberger about perfect with his strong and unmannered
readings.

Mr.  Weinberger was born in 1948 and did his basic music study at the
Munich Academy of Music specializing in organ and church music.  He is
currently a professor of organ at the Detmold Academy of Music and has
edited the complete edition of Robert Schumann's and J.  Kreb's organ
works.  For Volume 1, Weinberger performs on the Gottfried-Silbermann
Organ, Dom St.  Marien, Freiberg.  This organ was built from 1711 to
1714 and had its most recent significant overhaul in the early 1980's.
Currently, it is the largest surviving Silbermann organ except for one
in Dresden.

The Kirnberger Collection of miscellaneous Bach chorales ranges in time
from Bach's Arnstadt period into his Leipzig years.  For comparison with
Weinberger's performances, I used the sets from Herrick, Rubsam, Rogg,
and Jacob in addition to a few chorales from other recorded artists.

Weinberger's Kirnberger performances are not among the better sets.  Out
of eighteen chorales, seven are not at all satisfying:  BWV 690, 694, 695,
696, 697, 699, and 703.  His problem is a mixture of severity, slow tempo,
poor registrations, and solemnity.  When the four join hands, the results
are ponderous at best.  Bach's great capacity to lift the human spirit
doesn't play much of a role in Weinberger's interpretations.  In BWV 695 he
is absurdly slow, BWV 697 is just raucous, and BWV 699 is much too solemn
without any lift.

BWV 698 & 712 are exceptional readings, but the overall effect of
Weinberger's chorale performances is one of being slowly but inexorably
beaten down.  The severity condition is likely the most incapacitating in
these pieces.  At any rate, there's little to recommend here.  I appreciate
the severe nature of Weinberger's musical personality, but he needs to have
a better grasp of his own nature and make the right adjustments for music
which requires anything but severity.  In a sense, music has a 'heart and
soul'; in the chorales, Weinberger conveys little of this crucial element.

Weinberger's treatment of the Preludes & Fugues on the disc is an entirely
different matter; each is from Bach's tenure at Arnstadt.  Weinberger is
now in his element with music which has bite and some severity instead
of going against the grain as he does with the Chorales.  The Prelude
from BWV 549 is made to order for Weinberger; he is powerful, sharp, and
particularly poignant.  The Prelude & Fugue BWV 531 receives a superb
performance by Weinberger who fully captures the music's youthful, bold,
and brash nature.  Much the same applies to his readings of BWV 533 & 551.

Don's Conclusions:  Gerhard Weinberger's first volume of Bach organ works
does not bode well for the remainder of the cycle.  The majority of the
music for Volume 1 consists of the Kirnberger selection of chorales, and
Weinberger's musical personality is at odds with most the pieces in the
set.  His performances of the four relatively early Preludes & Fugues is
much better as it well suits Weinberger's approach to Bach.  Weinberger's
greatest challenge might be to stop being so solemn when he tries to add
some tenderness to the music.  Overall, he has significant trouble with
Bach's poetic and gentle side.

I can't recommend this first volume of the set.  However, when doing
complete cycles, some artists keep maturing as they progress into the
series.  Hopefully, Weinberger will do just that.  If not, an eventual
re-issue of a small number of discs just having Bach's more powerful
organ compositions would seem best for the Bach organ enthusiast.

Don Satz
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