[f_minor] Ich ruf zu Dir Mein Herr Jesu Christ

[Jörgen Lundmark]

I couldn't agree more. When it comes to Bach's organ music it is 
interesting how different they sound on the piano. One could argue that 
the music gains contrapuntal clarity and an intimacy of expression which 
is hard to achieve on the organ. It does not mean I don't appreciate the 
originals, only that the piano versions are different.

As Kristian points out there are many, many beautiful arrangements of 
Bach's music. His works have probably inspirered more different musical 
expressions than any other composer's. For anyone interested in this 
multi-facetted subject do visit this intriguing site which lists 
arrangments for piano of many different composers' work:
http://www.pianophilia.com/ot/ -- for example no less than 54 versions 
of BWV 565!

The question why Gould didn't, at least not in his mature years, play 
any of Busoni's arrangements probably stems from the fact that he did 
play the organ as a young performer. In one of his texts dealing with 
his relationship to Bach -- don't remember which at this point -- he 
mentions, rather scornful, that he belonged to a minority who didn't 
play the Busoni "expansions" (or what ever word Gould used). The 
virtuosic and very pianistic approach to Bach that Busoni represents is 
something that Gould abhorred. He was also opposed to the romantic 
tradition of performing Bach which Busoni is also very much part of. 
This is the same reason why Gould appreciated Stokowski as a conductor 
but disliked his Bach arrangements. By the way, Stokowski recorded his 
orchestral version of BWV 639 -- very romantic, very slow, very beautiful!

/Jorgen
> Beautiful and deeply moving music.
> There are a great number of transcriptions by for instance Busoni and 
> Godowsky that are both beautiful and maintains the complex 
> counterpoint of Bach. I do not know of any recordings of such pieces 
> by Gould and I have often wondered why he did not take any interest in 
> them.
>
> /Kristian
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 7:45 PM, Livio Marangon 
> <livio_marangon at yahoo.it <mailto:livio_marangon at yahoo.it>> wrote:
>
>     I love this moving piece, and I think everybody loves Glenn Gould
>     would like Dinu Lipatti's rendition:
>     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fhqqxEQRRY
>     Livio
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *Da:* "DorianLS at aol.com <mailto:DorianLS at aol.com>"
>     <DorianLS at aol.com <mailto:DorianLS at aol.com>>
>     *A:* f_minor at glenngould.org <mailto:f_minor at glenngould.org>
>     *Inviato:* Lunedì 31 Ottobre 2011 21:54
>     *Oggetto:* Re: [f_minor] Ich ruf zu Dir Mein Herr Jesu Christ
>
>     It is certainly a beautiful piece.  To my knowledge, there is no
>     recording by GG of the piece.  There is a beautiful
>     piano rendition on Youtube, a Bach/Busoni arrangement, played by
>     Glemser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La2MIYSDduY  I first heard
>     this piece in the Soviet era film "Solaris" which left an
>     unforgettable emotional impression.  Dorian
>     In a message dated 10/31/2011 6:03:37 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
>     poul.pedersen at hum.au.dk <mailto:poul.pedersen at hum.au.dk> writes:
>
>         Could anybody kindly tell me whether GG recorded "Ich ruf zu
>         Dir Mein Herr Jesu Christ" BWV 639?
>
>         Many thanks,
>
>         Denmark
>
>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ff0.org/pipermail/f_minor/attachments/20111101/1659a7f8/attachment.html>