#simonlumby #bach #organmusic #hauptwerk #nottinghammidiorgans
Fantasia super 'Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott' BWV 651
28th May 2023 - Pentecost Sunday
Sample Set - Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach Concert Hall in Frankfurt (Oder), Sauer, 1975 (Sonus Paradisi)
Played on my ‘Trent Series’ console, made by Nottingham Midi Organs (www.nottinghammidiorgans.co.uk)
*************************************
“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” - Johann Sebastian Bach
*************************************
In the last ten years of his life, Bach gathered together and completed a series of chorale arrangements that came from much earlier years when he was working as an organist in Weimar, Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The Fantasia Super on the Pentecost hymn, ‘Komm, Heiliger Geist’ (BWV 651) is a tour-de-force of an organ chorale with extraordinary momentum, and the only chorale setting known for certain to have been entitled 'Fantasia' by Bach himself. The manual work sees unrelenting and ecstatic semiquavers pile in above a thunderous long-held pedal note, after which the pedal line declaims the cantus firmus: 'Come, holy ghost'. The overwhelming opening of this grand chorale fantasia clearly refers to the opening verses of Acts 2, detailing the ‘sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind’ and the ‘tongues like as of fire’ giving the apostles the gift to ‘speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance’. Finally, all the turbulence ends in a short but powerful hallelujah.
*************************************
“Beloved Bach” was commissioned from me in 2022 as a Golden Wedding Anniversary present from a man to his wife: I was asked to record one piece of Bach organ music for her every week for a year - and that each recording should be ‘delivered’ every Sunday. The lady who is the beneficiary of this quite extraordinary gift is a very knowledgeable devotee of the great Baroque Master and always referred to her favourite composer as her true 'Beloved'.
I know that every organist is a Bach expert (or at least commonly has firm opinions on how the music should be played and interpreted) however these recordings are not offered in any way to proclaim myself as some kind of Bach specialist - rather just as someone who shares with the recipient of this extraordinary gift a love of this astonishing music. As these videos are being released throughout the year, one on each Sunday of the liturgical calendar, some pieces are particular or relevant to that specific release day while others are not chosen with this in mind. Many of the pieces that are in this collection were chosen with a certain amount of knowledge of the person to whom this gift is dedicated, in as much as many of her favourites (some of which are lesser-known pieces) are included. All the recordings are ‘live’ in as much as my limited knowledge of videography hasn’t expanded yet to ‘splicing’, however where there are two movement pieces, generally there were two separate takes. I hope you enjoy these recordings - please subscribe to be notified when each new recording is released.
15 сен 2024
