Blown away - Toccata in d minor...

[hbofinger]

So I am on vacation in Poland right now, and in the main square in Krakow I hear these two accordion players do the Tocatta in d minor. I know about the deal, I have heard this before: Moscow conservatory students kicked out by the collapse in Russia, pulling off these works for a pittance. In Bonn, Germany, I have heard a guy pulling this off on an accordion by himself. Russian, of course.

Son then I went on YouTube in the evening to hear the thing on the real  instruments. Found a really good recording. Problem is I really like this piece. I saw it as part Bach's "secular" side. The preludium in E flat major was  the same category for me.

I am the son of a German Lutheran minister who became an aux. bishop. So I am kind of sick of Bach spiritualism (you can chase me out of a house anywhere with Jesu meine Freude) I tell my friends that by the age of 15 I have done enough church for a lifetime, so I am not going there anymore.

I always saw the Toccata as a way to admire Bach beyond my on very judgemental view in seeing him as an "institutional" composer (I know I am commiting pure sacrilidge here in the worst form, but that is how I feel).

There it is, Bach thee genius. Once you unleash him out of the institutional (church) context, and listen to what a secular masterwork on the organ sounds like, you see his genius!

Only problem is, now that I researched the piece after hearing two accordion players perform it in them amin town square in Krakow, he didn't write it...

I need a shrink...
 

[qpalqpal]

This should be in repertoire.

But anyways, I think the Passion according to Saint Mateus is beautiful. In the context of Christianity, his works are beautiful.

Esteban

[indianajo]

I'm with you, hbofinger. I seriously enjoy the secular, show off JS Bach, and am somewhat underwhelmed by most of the church stuff.  I'm American Baptist, so it is certainly not through over-exposure to the JSB literature every Sunday.  I've had a church musician suggets the deacon committee would censure her if she allowed me to play a JSB postlude after the service.  I suggest JSB had some of the same control exercised over him, by those with "taste" (IE big donors).  The first priority of the church is the Word, and music is an adornment.  
I can respect a version of Tocatta d min on accordians, I discovered JSB in the Stokowski orchestration in a Walt Disney movie.  How low class can you get?  That orchestration is reviled by original instrument purists, but I still can enjoy it.  
For my own edification, I'm trying to play JSB's Passacaglia & Fugue in C min, on a Hammond electric organ.  It is somewhat limited in tonal colors and the presentation will be two dimensional, instead of echoing all around a big cathedral.  But I will enjoy it.  I've been working two years and am up to page 3 so far.  

[hbofinger]

Thanks for the understanding reply.

My  stepfather in law, an academic from Brown and Harvard, had an organist for his first wife before she passed away. He has an acute ear. So we at one evening discussed Bach. I told him of this fabulous recording I heard of some piece of Bach's that almost sounded like an orchestra on the organ. After some descriptors and a pensive moment, he said "of course that is the E flat major, followed by the St. Anne's." He was dead on target, just by my amazed, but uniformed verbal description of the music.

The E flat and the Tocatta often find  on the same set of recordings. I have Walcha and Richter, amongst others.

Historically, I don't yet understand what happened to the Tocatta. Was is attributed to Bach because people felt it is so great, it must be his, or is it that it was given an air of legitimacy by being somehow associated with Bach?

The orchestral versions, I agree, are an abomination...

[j_menz]

I have Walcha and Richter, amongst others.

That's Karl Richter for those who may have wondered if Sviatoslav had another career.

There are quite a number of good transcriptions for piano of the Dm, and a truly spectacular one of the St Anne by Busoni.

[hbofinger]

Correct on the Karl Richter.


Now I am in trouble, because now I will have to look up these transcriptions.