Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Christopher Herrick, Organ of Die Stadtkirche :: Bach: The Neumeister Chorales

Bach scholarship is neither finished nor finite. The organist Christopher Herrick (ex-Westminster Abbey) can never be absolutely certain that his Hyperion recordings really include the entire organ works of J.S. Bach as advertised, especially as he concludes the series here with the 36 so-called "Neumeister Chorale Preludes" which were discovered as recently as 1985. To get the most out of this disc, the listener should really be acquainted with the chorale melodies on which each prelude is based, just as Bach's congregation would have been. Why not print them in the accompanying booklet? The eye is drawn first to the best-known chorale, "Jesu Meine Freude," which Herrick plays with slow, somber, penitential clarity. The first verse is plain, the second complex. The music is all restrained, pious joy colored by the sweet Rohrfloete stop on the tiny single-manual Metzler choir organ in the Stadtkirche at Zofingen, Switzerland. Despite its size, Herrick manages to find a different voice for each chorale--although he cheats twice by double-tracking. His most exciting playing is in the chorale "Du Friedefuerst." His steady-stepping fingers in the first part can barely contain themselves in the brilliant skipping triplets of the second. The tune of this chorale is cunningly hidden, just as it is in several others, and one of the joys of the disc is unraveling the puzzles. --Rick Jones