JS Bach Bach and Expression – Documentary and Organ Works (CD/DVD) Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BWV 535; Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 etc. Daniel Moult, Martin Schmeding (organ) Fugue State Films FSFDVD015 400 mins (2 DVDs) plus 150 mins (2 CDs)
A big topic such as expression in JS Bach deserves the big treatment it receives in Will Fraser’s latest film, which starts with the organist Daniel Moult posing the complex yet simple-sounding question, ‘What is expression?’ Exploring how we might play Bach today, expressing ourselves while also being true to the composer’s identity, Moult and his fellow virtuoso Martin Schmeding prove themselves good communicators.
Shaped as a chronological survey of Bach’s organ literature, the film (backed up by performances on DVD and CD) allows us to hear how the expressive influences of Italian music and French forms were incorporated into North German tradition. Schmeding is particularly interesting on the chorale-based works, designed to capture the joy and pain of Lutheran hymns and reinforce their pictorial associations; expressing Lutheran dogma was the organist’s highest aim, and Schmeding compares the effect of different Chorale Preludes based on the same chorale.
Four organs of Bach’s day – located in Rötha, Sangerhausen and Waltershausen – are captured in excellent camera work from Fugue State Films. Highlights include the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, played with expressive ornamentation, and the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, performed with rhetorical flair.
As we are reminded, the organ at its most majestic could produce the loudest pre-Industrial Revolution sound.
John Allison