Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Helmuth Rilling :: J.S. Bach: Das Orgelbüchlein, Vol. 1

A marvelous gift on CD

Donald H. Rhoads | Bloomington, IN USA | 09/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review applies to Cantate 57607, 57608, and 57609. I have loved these recordings since I purchased them back in the sixties on LP as a four disc set, Nonesuch HD 73015. I wore that copy out and much later found an unworn copy in a used record dealer's stock, and purchased that.



Choral music was always problematic on LP because of the distortion that so often occurs on the inner grooves. I have wished for years that someone would reissue these recordings on CD, and finally it has occured--the date in the notes indicate it might have happened 10 years ago, in 1995, but surely I've searched since then and could not find them!



This is a unique collection combining the Chorale Preludes of Bach's "Little Organ Book" with choral settings of the original Lutheran hymns, which were set by various composers. The organ performances seem thoroughly satisfactory to me, and the choral settings, whose texts brim with piety, are splendid especially when juxtaposed with the preludes.



Of all the pieces on these disks, I'm most enraptured by the last cut on the first disk #57607, "In dir ist Freude". This radiant hymn is set against a magisterial prelude that is reminiscent of Bach's large-scale organ preludes/fugues.



When I saw that these recordings were available on CD, I sat down at my desk and cried for joy."