Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750)
        Selected Organ Works

Prelude & Fugue in B minor, BWV 544
Fantasia & Fugue(fragment) in C minor, BWV 562
Prelude & Fugue in E minor, BWV 548
Ricercar a 6 from Musical Offering, BWV 1979,5
Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her, BWV 769
Organ Chorale "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit, BWV 668

Hanssler 92.100
Recorded 1998
Rieger Organ of St. Katharinenkirche, Franfurt am Main(1990)
Matin Lucker, Organ
TT 79:12

Summary: Overbearing and Turgid - Not Recommended

I had great expectations from this Martin Lucker disc.  Lucker is a
very strong and muscular Bach performing artist who gave us a fantastic
Hanssler/Bach disc titled "Scales from Weimar".  Unfortunately, the "Late
Works from Leipzig" recording is burdened with problems, and the emphasis
is on 'burden'.  By the time I was finished listening to the recording, I
felt as if a ton of bricks had caved in on me and no one was available to
relieve the pressure.

Lucker certainly maintains his strong and muscular approach, but this
time it is heavy, turgid, somber, and slow.  The Preludes & Fugues on
the program, works he is best suited for, are only partially successful
at best.

Lucker seems to wring all the life out of these works with his slow pacing
and extremely heavy and bass-laden registrations.  In BWV 668, the last
organ work composed by Bach on his deathbed, Lucker is so slow and somber;
I much prefer this piece to represent Bach's glorious 'calling-card' into
Heaven.  With Lucker, it sounds like the dreaded last rites.  Although
Lucker does well with the Canonic Variations, there's nothing special in
the interpretation; further, the work does not play into Lucker's strengths
as a Bach performer.

The six-part Ricercar from the Musical Offering is not often recorded
on the organ likely because of the potential problems which can result
from thick and smooth organ textures.  Those problems are center-stage
in readings such as from the quick paced Christopher Herrick on Hyperion.
He's too much into legato with insufficient lift to the performance; the
details which are so important in this piece are murky with Herrick.
Although on piano, Nikolayeva invests the music with great detail so the
listener can savor every musical strand.

Martin Lucker provides all the muscle, intensity, and angularity lacking
in Herrick's reading.  Lucker is also quite slow with every phrase being
examined and conveyed to the listener in as strong a manner as I've ever
heard.  As good as Lucker may be, I still prefer this ricercar played on
piano or harpsichord; the work is so heavy on its own without the added
weight of the organ.  But if you want the strongest performance on organ,
Lucker delivers the goods.

Don's Conclusions:  Two major reservations stop me from giving the Lucker
recording a positive recommendation.  First, it is questionable whether
the Ricercar is a worthy item to program on organ, and Lucker extends
it to the eighteen minute range.  Second, the most powerful works on the
disc are performed in an overbearing manner.  I didn't anticipate these
miscalculations from Lucker.  He evidently was not in top interpretive form
while planning and recording the program, and I advise readers to go with
his "Scales from Weimar" disc.  As for me, I'll just wait for his next disc
on the horizon.  I certainly have not given up on Lucker, but this present
disc is not highly rewarding.

Don Satz
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