E. Power Biggs - Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor-Part 2 "The Fugue"

Here's the Fugue

Johann Sebastian Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582) performed by the concert organist E. Power Biggs playing the 1958 Flentrop tracker in the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University

This is just the Fugue. Click this link to hear the Passacaglia from the beginning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYPLDJ8TOE


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Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• bach
• biggs
• pipe
• organ
• BWV
• 582
• fugue

[russedav5]

As I said in part 1: regrettably what is lost here is that if you look in the Schmieder catalog, this is not a two-part work like the Preludes and Fugues but simply Passacaglia, for what is mistakenly understood as a separate "Fugue" is rather the last and greatest of the variations that comes forth from the cadence WITHOUT a break, as the score clearly shows. continued-

[BigOrganPipes]

@russedav5 i only called it (parts 1 & 2) because i couldn't fit the whole thing in a single post as per youtube limits. the limits have since changed but youtube is blocking it when i try do upload the whole piece

[bbbbmer]

i've not heard of him, but i'll youtube it and see.... i do like a french artist named pincemaille whose widor toccata is AMAZING however... thank you for the reference...

[BigOrganPipes]

check my favorites. he's awesome

[bbbbmer]

i have actually played this organ, sometimes in the middle of the night, when visiting my bf at school quite the romantic setting... and i remember some recordings of e power biggs ...but for the life of me how he developed his reputation as a 'great' organist is beyond me -- he plays like a little old lady at sunday morning mass... virgil fox, for all his technical lapses, was by FAR more talented, passionate, and joyous to both hear and watch, which i was fortunate to do just b4 he died.

[BigOrganPipes]

do you like Cameron Carpenter ?

[Aphidboy]

Where ever Mr. Biggs' spirit resides, I hope there are organs this grand, with an abundance of Angels willing to keep the bellows full.

[passacaglia28]

I have this on my iTunes account. I love this version. Karl Richter has an amazing version of this.

[aston0708]

@bbbbmer

"Any old lady"as you put it that can play with an impeccable tense of rhythm,technical mastery of the instrument and a profound sense of musicality,,,, is welcome in my parish any time,,,

"Old lady " my flute,,,,,,,

[halloerde]

@bbbbmer Could not disagree more. Please listen to he buildlng tension, and the contrapuntal clarity.

[anisometropie]

You can only feel happy when you get to listen to this. I cried of joy.

The napolitan sixth is used once in the whole fugue, but what a powerful chord. Bach knew how to write music, isn't it ?

[bbbbmer]

@thatusernameisdumb I think I'll live....

[thatusernameisdumb]

@bbbbmer I don't like you. First because you refuse to capitalize and second because you are a dummy. Hmm. Take that.

[Renshen1957]

@bbbbmer Different tastes. Biggs, a student of Albert Schweitzer, popularized the Baroque Organ. He didn't require light shows to get the message across. Biggs could play Bach's Dorian or Widor's Toccata with the best of them.

Virgil Fox was the Liberace of the Organ, well suited to Symphonic and Theater Organs. Fox could play, although his registrations for Wachet Auf (Schubler Chorale Prelude) or his tempi for the opening pedal scale (Prelude In D major) were misguided at best.

[waymdart]

I saw the man play in person and everything he did was just right. He has such a perfect sense of rhythm/timing. It is not infrequent to hear performers slow down and speed up as they negotiate some passages, but not e. power. In my mind Bach played with this exactness.

[waymdart]

I saw the man play in person and everything he did was just right. He has such a perfect sense of rhythm/timing. It is not infrequent to hear performers slow down and speed up as they negotiate some passages, but not epower. In my mind Bach played with this exactness.