October 11: Organ Works (Simon Preston, Jörg Halubek, and Ton Koopman, Organ)
The secular and the holy, altogether
On Tuesday, I watched Manfred Honeck conduct the NY Philharmonic in a program that included Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Like, really watched him.
My vantage point was center stage behind the orchestra, facing Honeck. I’d never seen a maestro perform face to face — it was super cool. The seat was particularly fitting for this concert, as a Beethoven symphony is effectively a solo performance for its conductor.
At the start of the haunting allegretto, Honeck subtly lifted his hands to signal the opening note, and conducted in time for a few measures. But then, for nearly a minute, he stood stone-still, looking pensively at the string section, his hands pressed together, baton tucked between his palms, thumbs below the chin and fingers crossing his closed lips. This played:
It was a display of deep trust in his musicians, embodied in a physical pose of prayer.
Beethoven was a Deist, a child of the Enlightenment. His symphonies are the endgame of a pursuit to move the world through the sheer force of music. “MAN,” is the implicit text of (nearly) every Beethoven piece. And in a great performance of his work, you’ll be blown over... figuratively. The magic ends at the concert hall door, or when the CD does.
Beethoven’s quest for hugeness in every moment perversely shows how limited our powers are: if Beethoven can’t be God, none of us will be either.
Honeck knew the same in that moment. Beethoven’s prayers were implicit, and they just needed to be brought into the world. This week, as I listened to ostensibly secular Bach works for organ, I felt the compositions to be so closely linked to his approach to sacred work that they feel much the same.
Bach’s sacred cantatas, and Beethoven’s secular symphonies, Bach’s sonatas, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis — they’re all of one piece, reaching for the heavens, transcending ourselves through space, over the centuries, into and between one another.
This post completes my survey of Bach’s organ works, and covers BWV 701-720,, 727-8, 730-1. 733-7, 739-41, 747, 753, 764, 957, 1085, 1090, 1092-3, 1095, 1098-1106, 1108-1111, 1114-1118, and 1121. I’ve selected performances by Simon Preston, Ton Koopman, and Jörg Halubek. Let’s hit some highlights:
Preston channeling Bach channeling the calm spirit and the active spirit in BWV 711 (Preston). In every man, there lives two wolves, or something:
Halubek pulls off a convincing piccolo sound on the organ, and is so nimble in second half of BWV 1102:
The slow and pretty BWV 714 from Preston:
Preston starts fff in BWV 708:
Mysteries from the deep in BWV 1098 (Halubek):
Replace all merry-go-round music with BWV 712 (Preston):
This set includes the excellent organ settings of chorale preludes, performed by Koopman below.
BWV 1103 is a good representation:
BWV 1109’s odd crunchy moments:
And in BWV 1112, the reverb is big, and fades into the void:
Instrumental music is the most abstracted art. More than any other art form, it allows the receiver the freedom to attach meaning. That you have done, and who can argue?
It puts me in mind of Emily Dickinson's poetry, similarly flexible, noble, and beautiful.
How lucky we are to live in an age where these treasures are at hand. How sad the condition of our culture that so few partake. Maybe Beethoven and Dickinson were only meant for the few, but somehow I think they saw their work as mankind's emancipation.
It's still on my bucket list to sit in one of those seats at the new David Geffen. I'd bet that was a wonderful experience. Admittedly, I don't know any of these organ works, even though the Bach organ pieces I do know are some of my favorites in the repertoire. Realizing this by inspiration of your blog, I now own the complete organ works played by Koopman and hope to listen to it in the coming weeks. :)