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St.
Sepulchre-without-Newgate
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19 ÌÀÐÒÀ 2003
Wednesday
19th March
Organ
Recital: Vikenty Maykapar & Alexander Maykapar (Moscow)
play
an all-Bach programme
Prelude
and Fugue in e moll, BWV 533
Alexander
Maykapar
Five
choral preludes:
Nun
komm’ der Heiden Heiland,
BWV 599
Herr
Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn,
BWV 601
Puer
natus in Bethlehem,
BWV 603
Das
alte Jahr vergangen ist,
BWV 614
Lobt
Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich, BWV
609
Prelude
and Fugue in G dur, BWV 541
Vikenty
Maykapar
Three
chorale preludes:
Herzlich
tut mich verlangen, BWV
721
Liebster
Jesu, wir sind hier,
BWV 731
Lobt
Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich,
BWV 732
Fantasia
and Fugue in c moll, BWV 537
Alexander
Maykapar
Two
chorale preludes:
Christ
lag in Todesbanden,
BWV 625
Ich
ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV
639
Toccata
and Fugue in d moll, BWV
565
Vikenty
Maykapar
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London, UK
St Paul's Cathedral Sunday Recitals
16 March 2003 at 1700
J S Bach and the Authentic-Performance Style in Russia
Alexander Maykapar
Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 533
Ach Gott und Herr (per canonem) BWV 714
Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten (manualiter) BWV 691
Herzlich tut mich verlangen (a 2 claviers et pedale) BWV 727
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (a 2 claviers et pedale) BWV 731
Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich BWV 732
Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV 537
Alexander Maykapar studied the organ with Leonid Roisman, one of the editors of the Neuen Bach-Ausgabe, at the Moscow Conservatoire. He was one of the founding fathers of the Russian Early Music movement and has been an international organ, harpsichord and fortepiano recitalist since 1970, performing in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and England. He is a Bach specialist and has played the complete harpsichord works in recital and on Russian radio. He has had seven books and more than 100 articles published on early music, musical interpretation and musical iconography, and has translated many western music textbooks into Russian. For four years he has broadcast organ music on the Russian station of the BBC World Service, including recordings on the historic "German System" organ at St George-the-Martyr, Queen Square, London.
In 1832 a revolutionary event in the history of English organ performance and organ building took place here at St Paul's when Mendelssohn played several of Bach's organ works to the leading organists of the day, including the
Prelude and Fugue in E minor. St Paul's was one of very few English organs at that time with a pedal department. Mendelssohn gave a copy of the prelude and fugue to Novello, who published it the next year; he taught the German tradition to the leading London organists; and they in turn demanded the replacement of the English manuals-only organs by "German System" ones. The prelude and fugue is a miracle of conciseness, in just four printed pages covering the classic elements of toccata style in the prelude and working out a well-developed and striking fugue.
Ach Gott und Herr is a Lenten hymn which starts Ah, God and Lord, how great and heavy are the sins I have committed, ending So Lord Christ, my refuge is the cave of your wounds... Bach's prelude has a four-part texture with the chorale melody in canon between the soprano and tenor lines. The intense and introverted mood of the piece is heightened by the way the other two lines are derived from fragments of the chorale melody, sometimes in a simple way, sometimes inverted.
Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten is a hymn for the 5th Sunday after Trinity,
He who allows dear God to rule him... will be wonderfully sustained by Him... he who trusts in God the most high has not built on sand. Bach's manual-only setting is not necessarily for organ and is reminiscent of the style of the sarabandes in the harpsichord suites. Bach used it in the instructional volumes he wrote for his first son, Wilhelm Friedemann, in 1720, and later for his second wife, Anna Magdalena. The highly decorated melody uses many of the ornaments Bach had explained a few pages earlier in his volume for Wilhelm Friedemann.
The melody of the Chorale Prelude Herzlich thut mich verlangen is well-known as the tune of O Sacred Head Sore Wounded. Bach used it for several different hymns. In this case it is a hymn associated with funerals and the resurrection. Its first verse is
From my heart I long for a blessed end, for I am here surrounded by trouble and misery... O Jesu, come soon.
The melody is heard in the right hand, sometimes simply and sometimes more ornately.
The hymn of the Chorale Prelude Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier is for use before the sermon. Its first verse is
Dearest Jesu, we are here to listen to you and your word; direct our minds and desires to the sweet teachings of heaven, that our hearts be drawn from earth wholly towards you. Bach wrote several preludes for this regularly-used hymn. They all seem to reflect on the phrase
sweet teachings. This one has a very ornate treatment of the melody in the right hand.
The Chorale Prelude Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich is on a Christmas hymn which starts
Praise God, you Christians all together, in his highest throne, who today opens his Heaven and gives us his son and ends Today he opens once again the door to beautiful Paradise; the angel guards it no longer. To God be praise, honour and glory. It is likely that this is a written-down improvisation by Bach. The first five notes of the chorale melody are accompanied by a figure repeated five times, lower each time, which seems to represent Christ descending from Heaven. The lines of the hymn are separated by little interludes and the one between
opens his Heaven and gives us his son is another charming representation of descending.
The intense and powerful Fantasia and Fugue in C minor shows Bach at his greatest. To the first-time listener it is tuneful, memorable and awe-inspiring, whilst scholars can study for years the richness of its invention. It has come down to us in just one copy and was almost lost for ever. Bach's pupils J T and J L Krebs made the copy, at the foot of which they wrote
Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory) 10 January 1751, just a few months after Bach's death. Amazingly, this only copy was being sold to a shopkeeper for use as waste paper when an organist called Reichardt intervened.
Translations are taken from The
Organ Music of J S Bach by Peter Williams, 1980.
Programme notes copyright © Martin P Black 2003 |
