Notes and Editorial Reviews

With the average playing time for each piece on this pair of discs amounting to more than five minutes it’s hardly fair to describe it as a collection of ‘miniatures’. But there again some might be tempted to describe what we have here as the ‘scrapings from the barrel’, for when you’ve taken out the chorale-based works, the trio sonatas, the concertos and the big preludes, fantasias, toccatas, passacaglia and fugues this is what’s left. Just as, in my youth, I almost preferred to lick the scrapings from the bowls in which my mother had prepared cakes than to savour the finished product, so I am tempted almost to prefer these crumbs from the table of great genius to those stupendous musical feasts which are everybody’s idea of the real J. S. Bach.

And when you have those crumbs seasoned with such loving care, such elegance and such finesse as Christopher Herrick gives to, say, the G minor Fugue (BWV578) or the enchanting Trio Sonata (BWV1027a), you realize that here is music every bit as worthy of close attention as anything Bach wrote for the organ, even if some of it is the work of an immature (maybe even a flawed) genius. In matters of registration, tempo, articulation and phrasing, Herrick displays immaculate taste. This is playing of the very highest order. The modest two-manual Metzler, built in 1992, makes an enchanting sound, and the recording (not to mention Stephen Westrop’s generous, painstakingly researched notes) fully supports the superlative artistry of the playing.

Hyperion have here crammed about as much music as can be fitted on to two conventional audio CDs but, like my mother’s cakes, no matter how much I am given I still want more. It’s that good!

Marc Rochester, Gramophone [9/1997]

Works on This Recording

1. Allabreve in D major, BWV 589 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

2. Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 "Little G minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1706; Arnstadt, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

3. Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533 "Little Prelude and Fugue" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1707; Arnstadt, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

4. Prelude in A minor, BWV 569 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1708; Mühlhausen, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

5. Pastorale in F major, BWV 590 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1710; Weimar, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

6. Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 549a by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1707
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

7. Fugue in G major, BWV 577 "Gigue" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland
Notes: This work is no longer believed to have been composed by J.S. Bach.

8. Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079: no 1, Ricercar a 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: 1747; Leipzig, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

9. Trio for Organ in D minor, BWV 583 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

10. Fantasia in B minor, BWV 563 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1707; Arnstadt, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

11. Duet for Organ in E minor, BWV 802 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1739
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

12. Duet for Organ in F major, BWV 803 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1739
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

13. Duet for Organ in G major, BWV 804 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1739
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

14. Duet for Organ in A minor, BWV 805 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1739
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

15. Trio for Organ in C minor, BWV 585 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: after 1750; Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

16. Aria in F major, BWV 587 [doubtful] by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: after 1726; Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

17. Trio for Organ in G major, BWV 1027a by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

18. Prelude in G major, BWV 568 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1708; Mühlhausen, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

19. Fugue in G major, BWV 576 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

20. Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 566 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1708; Mühlhausen, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

21. Fantasie in C major, BWV 570 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1707; Arnstadt, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

22. Fugue in C minor, BWV 575 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1708-1717; ?Weimar, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

23. Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BWV 535 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: 1708-1717; ?Weimar, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

24. Canzona in d, BWV 588 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1715; Weimar, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

25. Trio for Organ in G major, BWV 586 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

26. Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079: no 5, Ricercar a 6 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: 1747; Leipzig, Germany
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

27. Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 550 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1708
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

28. Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 539 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1720-1725
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

29. Fantasie and Fugue in A minor, BWV 561 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

30. Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 551 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Christopher Herrick (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1707
Venue: Stadtkirche, Rheinfelden, Switzerland