Bach Fugue G BWV 541/2 - Christoph Bull - Live on The Great Organs of First Church - FCCLA 1-9-22

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"This was the Postlude at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles on January 9, 2022.
I played this beautiful and joyful Fugue a bit slower than at other times in the past. As I was playing, I enjoyed the more measured pace and when I got to about the third page of my trusted Edition Peters score, I really appreciated some of the details, including the thirty-second notes, coming through better.
Why red socks and no shoes? Because my equally trusted Capezio dance shoes are hiding at an undisclosed location. I haven't completely given up hope that they will reappear, but pretty soon I might have to bite the bullet and buy new ones. That said, while I love those shoes and they serve me well with increased reach and being able to hit the pedals a bit harder on occasion, I also appreciate having an increased feel for the pedals in socks.
Lastly, can I please express my profound gratitude and appreciation that I work for a church where the Reverend says: 'Please be seated now for the Postlude.'
Please feel free to comment (with great civility), like and subscribe."
~
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4 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 51

@durupi 2 года назад

Ein sehr angenehmes Tempo. Was dadurch zur Geltung kommt: die Stimmführung; die Spannung, die zum Höhepunkt führt; den Aufbau. Hervorragend.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Vielen Dank!

@AlwaysVote 2 года назад

Magnificent performance!

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you!

@edwardtrent3524 2 года назад

Tempo enhances the richness of the piece and allows one to appreciate its wonderful intricacies. Bravo, Christoph … enjoyed this in person Sunday. Nothing beats being there.

@cootumrebel Год назад

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10 KJV).

@mudgebauer 2 года назад

Nice little organ. I wish I could play it. Well done , maestro.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you. If you're in the L.A. area some time, please come visit us (Info: fccla.org/visit) and come by the console after the service.

@GLOWXYENTERTAINMENT 2 года назад

Awesome, the speed is perfect, thanks

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thanks for the feedback!

@christopherglenn3240 2 года назад

All too often, it seems there is a competition amongst players to see who can play some of the literature at the fastest speed. Given the space you're in and the registration, your slower tempo gives this piece grace. Well done, Christoph, and I look forward to more of your videos.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you, Christopher.

@AlfredBrooks1831 Месяц назад

I absolutely agree, the pacing is truly superior, and it started off with a quite reserved registration, which allowed a substantial buildup without the volume becoming monotonous. Maestro also took into account the acoustics and reverberation time with phrasing. This is absolutely my new favorite recording of this piece. Bravo!!

@timlettbus 2 года назад

Very nice playing Christoph. Your tempo was very nice to enhance the use of the acoustics in that lovely space. There are a lot of hiding spaces in that church for the Capezios to hide. At one of the churches I served many years ago they told me that there were three octaves of handbells but nobody knew where they were. I did a long time search and found them in the long abandoned coal bin off of the boiler room.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you. And that story gives me hope :)

@derekburnsorg 2 года назад

Great Christoph, really glad that you play this at a slower tempo - I've always felt Bach should never be rushed and instead played at an appropriate pace which is both comfortable for the player and listener enabling a kaleidoscope of parts coming from all directions!! You should do some more of the great fugues like this :-)

@christophbull 2 года назад

On it! Thanks.

@januweness 2 года назад

Very well done - playing it slower is very challenging as there is continuous pressure to speed up as the piece goes one. Well done resisting that ;-) Grüße aus Madrid, Spanien

@christophbull 2 года назад

Grüße zurück nach Madrid!

2 года назад

I love how the organ sounds! An excellent performance 🎹👏👏

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you!

2 года назад

@@christophbull You are welcome, it has been a pleasure 😍🎶

@jimpedersen8100 2 года назад

Great to see and hear you, Christoph! And glad to see that you're still rockin' the red socks!

@roberthunt1540 2 года назад

What a magnificent instrument! And your voicing is spot on. Bravo!

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you kindly!

@1philip 2 года назад

Beautiful! I've come to the conclusion that it's OK to play the pedals without shoes. My organ teacher would disagree.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Whatever works. I do think there are legitimate reasons to play without shoes, even when one hasn't - like me - misplaced them. I used to do it on purpose because I felt it worked better for me. I did get some pushback, though. Some members of the organ world can be unforgiving. When I was invited to play at the 2004 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles at UCLA's Royce Hall, it was under the condition that I'd play with shoes. I was happy to do it because it was a great honor to be selected. Later I found out there was a person backstage whose only purpose to be there was to make sure I actually did wear shoes :) They definitely could have just taken my word for it. So I bought a new pair of my trusted Capezios and went through all of the exercises in the Gleason Organ Method to make sure I'd be comfortable. After that I kept playing with shoes. And later I became principal organist at Santa Monica First United Methodist Church where one of my predecessors was Catharine Crozier, editor of said Gleason Method. So, it all makes sense and comes together in the end :)

@URCStJamessNewcastlehymns 2 года назад

so relaxed - excellent

@christophbull 2 года назад

Many thanks! I do love the piece and have played it since my teenage years :)

@dean5709 2 года назад

Awesome play Christoph

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thanks, Dean.

@friedemannhahn9354 2 года назад

Thank you for sharing this wonderful rendition of this fugue! While I also enjoy the more exuberant approach that seems to be taken more commonly, yours would work particularly well when the fugue is combined with the gleeful and sparkling prelude, creating some delightful contrast. As you mention you have been playing this piece since many years - have you ever considered inserting a small personal cadenza into the break towards the end? While I don't believe this masterpiece of a fugue would be missing something yet to be added - to me it sounds strongly imperative ! ;-) Best wishes from Stuttgart, "aus am Ländle" Friedemann

@christophbull 2 года назад

Grüße nach Stuttgart! Nahe meiner Heimat (Mannheim). I agree, a faster tempo can work, too, and when I play it the next time I might choose that, depending on context, occasion and mood of the day. I don't think there's one 'right' way to do it. Yes, I have thought about a cadenza at that spot and I've tried it. What I've come up with so far hasn't convinced me, but after reading your comment I might just try again :) I do one towards the end of the fugue of the Passacaglia in C minor.

@davidcallahan2832 2 года назад

Thanks for posting this. I have appreciated your approach to Bach's organ work for years now, having first heard you at St. James Anglican Church on Wilshire Blvd. Two things stood out then. You had a relaxed and unpretentious manner of addressing the audience to introduce your selections, and your choices of registration made Bach sound better than anyone I had heard play him on that instrument before. Every organist, of course, is expected to play Bach to be taken seriously at concerts, but I think it must be a challenge to get a good baroque sound from the organs like the ones at St. James and First Congregational, which were designed primarily for Romantic literature. Any thoughts on how to get the most from them?

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thank you, David. That was in 1997. A good memory. Your compliment means a lot to me. I very much enjoyed playing the instrument at St. James. I do like to take time with registrations and I try out the stops individually and A/B them a lot. I don't go by what they're called, but by what they sound like because different builders and voicers interpret a given stop name differently.

@danielkreuzer8980 2 года назад

Hut ab, dass du dich bei den ganzen Registern zurecht findest. :-) Ich übe im Moment an einer Vleugels Orgel in Krefeld. "Standard" mit drei Manualen.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Danke schön. Viel Spaß in Krefeld!

@mattbod 2 года назад

Very American “look how much money we have” overkill of a console and must be a nightmare to navigate but sounds great and a guy who playe in pink stockinged feet deserves a thumbs up!

@christophbull 2 года назад

Your comment makes me smile. But do believe me, the console is actually laid out in a quite logical way and after eight years at First Church LA, I do know where everything is. (Or most of it :) I've enjoyed playing all kinds of different organs, ranging from one manual to five (and when I was a teenager I also played a harmonium at church, producing wind myself), and I just work with what I have. Especially when improvising, it can be nice to have five different sounds going at a time. I'm a naturalized immigrant from Germany, by the way, so I've experienced the gamut from humble restraint to glorious excess, and I'm happy to hang with all of it :)

@stevegatton7447 2 года назад

Unfortunately there are way too many times where the organist/artist is trying to show off how fast they can play, and so much of the interwoven parts get lost as a result. The composer's artistry becomes secondary to the musician's virtuosity. Acoustics and organ registration affect this as well, but please don't make it a race, we'd really like to hear what's going on. Nice job, good for the officiant to make the time, and I love the red socks. Those are my trademark, for all important occasions, including the pair I wore at our wedding.

@christophbull 2 года назад

Good to read this, Steve.

@henricdekoster7321 2 года назад

I should play it a little bit slower as you did because of the feeling to get the peace...

@christophbull 2 года назад

Thanks for commenting, Henric. I think it's okay to use various tempos depending on venue acoustics, occasion and on how we feel on a given day :)

@stanlivengood9500 2 года назад

Beautifully played, and I really like the tempo. I'm curious as to why you don't use some type of organ shoes, though. Seems like it would be easier to have a raised heel.

@christophbull 2 года назад

I've been using Capezio dance shoes. But I can't find them :)

@stanlivengood9500 2 года назад

@@christophbull, I use the same thing. I bought mine at a dance store. Perhaps you have a similar store near you.

@stephenrouse2493 2 года назад

LOL! "please be seated now for the postlude"? wow...talk about egoism!

@christophbull 2 года назад

When congregants listen to the Postlude, I appreciate the appreciation for the music and for the work I've put into preparing it. I like that they look at the postlude as a final part of the service. I compare it to true cineasts staying for the end credits of a movie because they want to see who was part of the production and hear what the film composer has in store for the conclusion of the soundtrack. Occasionally they even get a surprise final scene like in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. When I first started playing for services as a twelve-year old, it was customary at the church where I played for attendees to immediately leave as soon as the Postlude started. Sometimes all people had left the sanctuary before the piece was over. On one occasion one of my classmates at school came up to the choir loft where the organ console was located and said: "You can stop now, everybody is gone." I asked my first organ teacher (the wonderful Hermann Schäffer who studied with Karl Straube, a champion of Max Reger's organ compositions) about this. Professor Schäffer said: "Keep playing and finish the piece. Dear God ('der liebe Gott') is listening."

@ruthcoggin8986 2 года назад

Absolutely NOT egoism at all!! FCCLA is one of the few church communities that shows respect for its musicians by keeping quiet and listening to them - before, during and after the service. That is one of the many reasons why I worship online with them from half way across the world. Far too many church congregations think the music is there as some kind of background furniture (musac?) against which to have a nice catch up chat with your fellow congregant. As a former church musician, this used to drive me insane. I remember my late mother-in-law encountering this situation on many occasions. Once she simply stopped playing, stood up, and announced to the now-shocked-into-silence assembled masses that she was playing such-and-such a piece by so-and-so. Good for her! People in a concert hall would never stand up and walk out of the encore - so why do so in church? My little trick is to play gradually louder and louder - the chatter gets correspondingly louder and louder - and then suddenly dramatically drop the sound to a whisper. Shocked silence usually follows. So.... play on Dr Christoph Bull, and we will continue to keep quiet and listen to you while we reflect on the beauty of the music.

@friedemannhahn9354 2 года назад

@@christophbull Wow, that is a sad story :( It makes me appreciate the congregations I play for even more, each of which not having to be seated for the postlude but choosing to remain and listen out of true appreciation for the music I select and prepare. Depending on the occasion, the mood of contemplative music is carried on in solemn silence, while passionate and virtuoso postludes earn me a clap and even cheers. But I think your teacher's advice is good and perfectly adequate for a rendition of Bach's music. It coincides with the composer's intention and dedication.

@christophbull 2 года назад

@@friedemannhahn9354 Agreed. I'm very appreciative of congregations respecting all the music, including Postludes. I've been blessed with a number of such congregations, including the last two I've regularly played for, at First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica and First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.