played by Gerhard Weinberger on the organ of St Walpurgiskirche Groflengottern
CPO 999 866-2 68'02

There seems to be two schools of thought regarding the performance of a "complete" recording of Bach's organ music - one organ, or a wide range of instruments. Personally, I plump for the latter approach as does Gerhard Weinberger whose slowly appearing complete Bach has now reached volume 12. As with the previous volumes, the works on this CD are a varied selection, here including two of the Trio Sonatas (No's 1 & 4).

The organ used on this CD is the 1716 Trost instrument in St Walpurgis, Groflengottern (Thuringia), most recently restored by Eule (1995-7). It's certainly very suitable for the repertoire presented here, gentle toned but capable of producing a solid, well rounded organo pleno for the Prelude & Fugue in c S566, once more proving that a genuine organ of Bach's time need not shriek like so many modern copies!

The central pieces recorded here are the perhaps dubious "Neumeister" choral preludes. These are not great works by any standards but Weinberger's performance of 14 of them is convincing enough. On the other hand, the Trio Sonatas are certainly some of the greatest works in the repertoire and I can find no fault in his performances, apart perhaps from a slight vagueness in the Pedal part.

If you are collecting Gerhard Weinberger's CDs of Bach you will probably buy this CD - if not, then it is perhaps only interesting for the organ, unless you need any of the repertoire here recorded. DW