Simon Preston - J.S. Bach: Organ Works (2000)

Over the course of the last 12 years Simon Preston has been recording Bach’s organ music for DG, and while some of these discs have been released individually during that time, many are appearing here for the first time. More than that, some of the earlier recordings have been rejected in favour of more recent ones: I’m glad that his 1992 recording of the ‘Schubler’ Chorales (6/92) has been substituted by an altogether more relaxed and elegant version, recorded in late 1999, in which he not only seems more in sympathy with the music but also feels less inclined to treat it as the latest Olympic athletics event; BWV645 takes the best part of a minute longer in this new recording and benefits enormously from it. A total of 10 organs has been used (every one, as they say, a winner) and the booklet includes adequate historic information, specifications and photographs (although none of Preston’s registrations is detailed), as well as brief, rather basic notes and a somewhat superficial interview with Preston himself.
Of course it is nigh on impossible to be complete when it comes to Bach’s organ works – perhaps only Kevin Bowyer (for Nimbus) can guarantee completeness by recording everything Bach wrote, has ever been alleged to have written, or hasn’t written but has at some stage been accused of writing – and the declared policy here is to record only works which ‘can reasonably be attributed to Bach’. Even so, many will argue with the final choices, and, for my part, the absence of the ‘Neumeister’ Chorales seems an odd omission, especially since the authenticity of 30 of them has been put more than reasonably beyond doubt since their discovery in 1985.
There again, if there are any omissions from a Preston cycle it seems best that they come from the chorale-based works. For it is here that Preston is at his weakest. He seems unable, or unwilling, to allow the merest whiff of a legato tone to creep into his playing, with the result that small works relying on the prominence of a choral melody seem to lose their raison d’etre and many (for example BWV632) seem to lose contact with the choral line altogether. Some become very disjointed (BWV622) while others hurry by with little sense of direction. Preston does give us plenty of lovely organ sound (for all its hyperactive staccatissimo BWV701 presents a captivating aural portrait of the Nyborg church instrument built in 1973 by the Danish firm of Anderson), but lovely organ sound on its own soon palls when faced with 146 chorale-based pieces all played with little regard for melody. Nevertheless, some of these performances are more than satisfying; the five sets of Chorale Partitas are magnificently handled, and taken as a whole Preston’s strongly focused drive through the Orgelbuchlein is especially rewarding. It is also noticeable that in the recordings of chorale-based works made after 1998 Preston seems altogether more lyrical. Another decade, and perhaps he will begin to offer credible competition to Marie-Claire Alain (on Erato), who remains in my view the undisputed champion of the Chorale Prelude on disc.
In the printed interview Preston describes the Trio Sonatas as ‘the sort of music that, if you play it continually, puts you on top of almost anything’. Certainly from a technical standpoint his are matchless performances of the six Sonatas. Co-ordination, articulation and clarity of detail are immaculate. A decade or so ago such performances would have been irresistible. Unfortunately both Christopher Herrick (Hyperion, 11/90) and Ton Koopman (Teldec, 7/96) have revealed a degree of wit (if not outright humour), charm, grace and genuine humanity in these works which raises their accounts above the ‘technical exercise’ school of playing that seems to find its zenith in Preston’s recording made in 1993 and issued singly (on which occasion I described his playing as ‘treading on broken glass’). He is perhaps not helped by the 17-stop Klais in Blankenberg near Bonn, which has enough variety for the three movements of a single Trio Sonata but has its resources stretched to the limit over the 18 movements of all six Sonatas.
Five Concerto transcriptions are included here (BWV597, certainly not by Bach, is obviously excluded) and in each, Preston continues Bach’s work by performing them as true virtuoso organ works. Aided by the stunning Lubeck Cathedral organ (though the recording gives a most peculiar perspective and it is remarkable how different this same instrument sounds on the Sony recording of around the same time – nla – by the late Nicholas Danby) these Concertos are vivid, vivacious and magnificent in their virtuosity. Again we have plenty of evidence of Preston’s pathological hatred of sustained tone, and as a result there is articulation of almost dazzling clarity as well as a sense of energy which can become rather exhausting. With the exception of those passages (such as occur in the final movement of BWV594) where Bach gives merely a literal transcription of a violin solo cadenza, Preston’s approach makes good musical sense and can be quite invigorating, but whilst John Duarte, in his review of this disc when it appeared in 1988, recommended it as the only available recording of the five Concertos, subsequent competition from almost a dozen others knocks away much of its lustre. As with the Trio Sonatas, Preston’s playing seems almost mechanical set against the likes of Bowyer, Herrick and Franz Hauk (on Opus Magnum – nla – but due for re-release by Guild).
It is, though, in the great fugues, the preludes, Passacaglia and, above all, the toccatas that Preston is at his most impressive. There is no doubt that he ranks as one of the great organ virtuosos of our time, and with his technical bravado and wonderfully incisive feel for rhythm Preston gives us some of the most exciting and rewarding accounts of these works ever recorded. The gloriously gutsy Wagner organ of Trondheim Cathedral (the only genuine baroque instrument of the 10 used) provides the ideal setting for Preston’s sturdy account of BWV552, the Klais of St John’s Smith Square provides a suitably majestic vehicle for a sumptuously regal account of BWV547, and Tonbridge School’s 1995 Marcussen proves to be an inspired choice for the sunnier works (such as BWV531 and 541), although it lacks quite the right degree of gravitas for the ‘Dorian’ Toccata (BWV538).
Intelligent choice of instrument is one thing, but add to this Preston’s sizzling fingerwork and unfailingly apt choice of tempo, and every one of these large works (and many of the smaller ones) is transformed into something truly memorable. My personal favourites include: BWV564 – which, after an arresting opening flourish, commands our undivided attention through its erupting and cascading showers of notes; a beautifully lyrical adagio and a wonderfully ebullient Fugue – BWV542 – where he cleverly avoids any hint of pomposity in an otherwise statuesque account of the Fantasia on the full-blooded Sauer organ of St Peter’s Church, Waltrop); and best of all, the breathtakingly powerful sense of drive throughout the entire 14 minutes of the Passacaglia and Fugue, BWV582. Moreover few, if any, recordings have yielded quite such a convincing interpretation of BWV572, with its curious birdsong-like opening and closing movements framing a central grave, so often stodgy and out of proportion but here transformed into the centre of a scintillating triptych celebrating baroque magnificence and intricacy.
In short, then, this is a complete Bach with rather too many and too obvious weak links to make it an unreserved recommendation. If you must have a one-player box-set of Bach’s organ works (which is not something I would ever recommend) then go for Hurford’s 17-disc set – never quite as exciting as Preston, but never as irritating either. But I would urge anyone to buy Preston’s set on the strength of his matchless performances of the big, headline-grabbing works (which, after all, are the pieces most people would probably go for in choosing a complete Bach cycle), the splendid selection of organs and, not least, DG’s outstanding and vivid recordings. Supplement this with Herrick or Koopman for the Trio Sonatas, Herrick or Hauk for the Concertos and Alain for the Chorale Preludes and your library of Bach organ music will be the envy of the neighbourhood.'