TALL POPPIES RECORDS New and classical music by Australian composers and performers

Bach: Clavierübung III, Schübler Chorales & Canonic Variations

In this special Bach anniversary year, Tall Poppies presents the first of two offerings of his work. Clavierübung III is regarded by many as the pinnacle of Bach's work for organ.

John O'Donnell organ
Johann Sebastian Bach composer

John O'Donnell is an internationally respected performer and Bach scholar, and he gives scintillating performances in this recording, made on the Jürgen Ahrend organ at Monash University's Blackwood Hall. This is a beautiful baroque organ with many stunning combinations of colour and intensity. This is only the second commercial recording to have been made on this instrument in the nearly 20 years of its existence.

The two-disc set also includes the Schübler Chorales and the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch.

Reviews

2000 has proved to be an excellent year for early music on record, and especially for Bach. The competition for a personal ‘Disc of the Year’ has been intense, and it is with regret that I put aside two outstanding recordings of Renaissance music (Jordi Savall’s Morales Requiem on Astrée and Capilla Flamenca’s A-La-Mi-Re Manuscripts on Naxos) in favour of a new Australian set comprising the organ works Bach published towards the end of his life: the third part of the Clavierübung, the Canonic Variations and the Schübler Chorales. The performer is the organist and scholar John O’Donnell, and the merit of these discs is that every aspect is spot on.

O’Donnell is the organist of Monash University in Melbourne, which possesses a fine 45-stop Ahrend organ dating from 1980; it is tuned in a modified Werckmeister II temperament. His performances are quite superb: powerful, energetic and crisp, and the listener is carried along by his infectious rhythmic sense. O’Donnell sets ideal tempos, and his careful and precise articulation doubtless owes something to his extensive experience of the harpsichord; the ‘fughetta super Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’ is bright and punchy, while the trio ‘Jesus Christus unser’ ticks along delightfully. O’Donnell has given careful thought to the registration sequence, building up through the pedaliter Kyries to an impressive climax, and in the shorter manualiter pieces the counterpoint is conveyed with great clarity. He contributes his own detailed and scholarly booklet notes; the recording is very fine indeed, setting the seal on an exceptional release.

— Francis Knights, International Record Review

In early eighteenth-century Germany music publication was an expensive process with no guarantee of profit (Telemann, an astute businessman, was probably the most successful at this). Publication was often, therefore, intended for the purposes of prestige, or to impress an actual or hoped-for patron, rather than financial gain. Bach's three organ publications - the third part of the Clavier-Übung or 'Keyboard Practice', the Canonic Variations and the Schübler Chorales - date from late in his career (1739 and 1748), and are all thoroughly worked and polished sets designed to lay the best of his art before his organist colleagues. John O'Donnell has sensibly gathered them together on this pair of discs, making an attractive programme.

Three-quarters of the discs are taken up with the so-called German Organ Mass, a fascinating and varied work that is much more attractive than its austere title would suggest. It is framed by the large-scale Prelude and Fugue in E flat (popularly known as the 'St Anne' on grounds of resemblance to the hymn tune of that name), encompassing settings of the Kyrie and Gloria (the Lutheran 'Missa brevis') and chorales related to the Catechism. Nearly all the chorales are set twice, with a shorter, simpler composition for manuals only following each main setting. The Four Duets appended to the set are contrapuntally involved two-part works, again without pedals, with unusual chromaticisms and part-writing.

John O'Donnell is organist of Monash University in Melbourne, which possesses a fine 45-stop Ahrend organ of 1980; it is tuned in a modified Werckmeister II temperament. It makes a grand noise, though without having the overwhelming tonal majesty to be found in some European Baroque organs. But that is not to say that it falls any way short in a piece like the massive six-part 'Aus tiefer Not', with its double pedal line, or the wonderful tripartite fugue (reflecting the all-pervasive Trinitarian symbolism here) that ends the Clavier-Übung III collection. O'Donnell's performances are quite superb: powerful, energetic and crisp, the listener is carried along by his infectious rhythmic sense. He sets ideal tempos, and his careful and precise articulation (something over which organists often take far too little care) doubtless owes something to his extensive experience of the harpsichord: the 'Fughetta: Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot' is bright and punchy, while the trio 'Jesus Christus unser' ticks along delightfully. The six well-known Schübler Chorales are also excellent.

O'Donnell has also given careful thought to the registration sequence, building up through the pedaliter Kyries to an impressive climax - the various stops used (always with real imagination) are detailed in the booklet. In the shorter manualiter pieces the counterpoint is conveyed with great clarity. He evidently has big hands, as he manages to solo the treble cantus firmus in the four-part setting of 'Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit'.

As befits a well-known scholar of early keyboard music (he has written on the French Overture style and Bach, and edited the keyboard music of Kerll and Pachelbel), O'Donnell contributes his own detailed and scholarly booklet notes, which cover the historical and liturgical background, and issues of organ registration, numerology and symbolism. The recording is very fine indeed, but catches a slight 'tizz' from the uppermost mixtures.

This is one of the very best recordings of the Clavier-Übung III set, and one that surpasses the recordings by established masters such as Ton Koopman and Christopher Herrick. I find myself preferring it to any other version I have heard.

— Francis Knights, International Record Review

Artists

Photograph of John O'Donnell

John O'Donnell

John O’Donnell, Director of Ensemble Gombert, studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and at the University of Durham. After performing Bach’s complete organ works in 1974, he built an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist.

Photograph of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Tracks

  1. Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 Prelude Johann Sebastian Bach 7:52

    2. Clavier-Übung III Johann Sebastian Bach

  2. Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 669 3:44
  3. Christe, aller Welt Trost, BWV 670 4:55
  4. Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, BWV 671 5:03
  5. Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 672 1:31
  6. Christe, aller Welt Trost, BWV 673 1:21
  7. Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, BWV 674 1:12
  8. Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 675 3:08
  9. Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 676 5:18
  10. Fughetta super "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr", BWV 677 1:07
  11. Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot, BWV 678 4:50
  12. Fughetta super "Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot", BWV 679 1:57
  13. Wir glauben all an einen Gott, BWV 680 3:13
  14. Fughetta super "Wir glauben all an einen Gott", BWV 681 1:03
  15. Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682 6:55
  16. Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 683 1:23
  17. Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam, BWV 684 4:57
  18. Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam, BWV 685 1:20

Disc 2

    Clavier-Übung III Johann Sebastian Bach

  1. Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 686 7:03
  2. Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 687 5:05
  3. Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 688 3:31
  4. Fuga super "Jesus Christus unser Heiland", BWV 689 4:38

    5. Duettos, BWV 802–805 Johann Sebastian Bach

  5. No. 1 in E Minor, BWV 802 2:36
  6. No. 2 in F Major, BWV 803 3:23
  7. No. 3 in G Major, BWV 804 3:00
  8. No. 4 in A Minor, BWV 805 3:13
  9. Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 Fugue Johann Sebastian Bach 6:45

    10. Schübler Chorales Johann Sebastian Bach

  10. i. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 4:06
  11. ii. Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646 1:54
  12. iii. Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 647 3:46
  13. iv. Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, BWV 648 2:12
  14. v. Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 649 2:21
  15. vi. Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV 650 3:17
  16. Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, BWV 769 Canonic Variations Johann Sebastian Bach 12:44

Performers

Contributors

Photograph of John O'Donnell

Liner Notes

John O'Donnell

John O’Donnell, Director of Ensemble Gombert, studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and at the University of Durham. After performing Bach’s complete organ works in 1974, he built an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist.

Where to listen

Bach: Clavierübung III, Schübler Chorales & Canonic Variations is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.

Bach: Clavierübung III, Schübler Chorales & Canonic Variations is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.

Product details

Catalogue number
TP140
Total playing time
130 minutes 23 seconds
Contributor
Jürgen Ahrend
Producer
Belinda Webster
John O'Donnell
Recording Engineer
Belinda Webster
Mastering Engineer
Don Bartley
Venue
Robert Blackwood Hall
Credit
John O'Donnell
Release date
Label
Tall Poppies
Musical work
copyright
© 2000 Tall Poppies Records
Sound recording
copyright
℗ 2000 Tall Poppies Records
Category
Great Classics
Genres
Baroque, Organ
Barcode
EAN 9399001114023

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