Organist Simon Johnson presents this album as an exploration of the B-A-C-H motif in organ music, beginning with its appearance in The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, of Bach himself. (B natural in the German system of note names is H, so the motif is a kind of musical signature.) The concept is plenty interesting and easily sustains itself over two CDs. The Art of Fugue is generally thought to be a work left unfinished at Bach's death, but the notes here present a recent theory that Bach, who was not in poor health as he worked on ...
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Organist Simon Johnson presents this album as an exploration of the B-A-C-H motif in organ music, beginning with its appearance in The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, of Bach himself. (B natural in the German system of note names is H, so the motif is a kind of musical signature.) The concept is plenty interesting and easily sustains itself over two CDs. The Art of Fugue is generally thought to be a work left unfinished at Bach's death, but the notes here present a recent theory that Bach, who was not in poor health as he worked on it and whose handwriting was strong to the end, actually intended listeners to finish it for themselves; Johnson offers, as an example, a dense completion by Lionel Rogg. The works following Bach's model, by Mendelssohn, Schumann, the young Brahms, Liszt, Max Reger, and Sigfrid Karg-Elert, grow progressively more chromatic; the Karg-Elert, which is not such a common piece, is murky to an astonishing degree. The album is indeed worthwhile for its program, but there is a subsidiary...
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