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Bach: Toccatas arr. Reger - Schoener

Bach: Toccatas arr. Reger - Schoener

MDG Scene  949 1981-6

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Instrumental


Bach: Toccatas BWV 910-916 arr. Reger

Christoph Schoener (organ of St. Michaelis-Church, Hamburg)


Hamburg Sound
First Bach, then Reger, and now Bach/Reger: the present disc is Christoph Schoener’s third MDG recording on the four organs in St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg. The attractive program featuring Johann Sebastian Bach’s seven toccatas, five of them in gripping arrangements by Max Reger, embodies the best and fullest opulence of sound. And since the MDG sound engineers this time too rely on the very finest three-dimensional SACD technology, the big sound of this musical event, including the echo division and its extra spatial effects, can be enjoyed at home – an audiophile highlight of a special kind!

Free Sources
Reger absolutely idolized Bach – which did not stop him from taking great liberties with his venerated model’s scores. Reger’s detailed and nuanced dynamics and articulation as well as his added notes irritated some of his contemporaries, but this composer bursting with pure creativity paid no attention to such “insipid blockheads” and “unimaginative scribes living by the letter of the law” (as he characterized them) – very much to the joy of succeeding generations.

Special Forces
All four organs in St. Michael’s Church are heard individually or together, and three of them operated by a central console can be registered as a common instrument. What a magnificent room effect results when the performance event culminates with participation by the echo division from the rosette in the ceiling! The fact that there is more to Reger than loud music is shown by his subtle arrangement of the Toccata in D minor – not to be confused with Bach’s immortal organ classic. After some episodes of playful to expressive design, the piece actually concludes very tenderly – as if made for a solo on the wonderful romantic concert organ.

Seventh Heaven
The seven toccatas were originally intended for the harpsichord. Max Reger transferred five of them to the organ, and now Christoph Schoener has adapted the other two. On the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach organ in unequal temperament he demonstrates that the historical performance style too can be pleasurably realized in St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg.

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