This is a perfect recording. Absolutely flawless performance. Richter playing one of Bach’s titanic pieces with so much emotion and individuality.. can’t get enough of it.
A perfect match of composer, performer and instrument. I'd would have loved to have sat on a back bench and listen to this magnificent performance unfold. The stop choices, the reverberance, the sounding and decay of each note. This would be my heaven on this earth. The instrument is simply extraordinarily beautiful. The playing sheer mastery. Truly, divine. (oh, yeah, old man Bach gave a pedal passage to die for ❤)
Hard to beat that performance, and he memorized the whole piece. Good old Karl was the reason why I started to listen to Bach 40 yrs ago. The passions were done on a monumental scale, and Erbarme Dich is the most moving piece ever.
Richter just amazes me whenever I listen to him. People accuse him of being too much of a romantic when he performs my music, but pay no heed, those people know nothing.
I don't like this much his recordings as a conductor, historical performance practices studies have by now marched on and performances by him and "his" Münchener Bach-Orchester are by now quite dated, but as an organist still is spot on. Probably helps the fact the organs he used still were quite close in construction to 17th- and 18th-Century ones, those Bach would have played on, and he took full advantage of their peculiarities (I really like German organs, and find them to be the best blend between clarity and power). This performance of Bach's Passacaglia in C minor is outstanding.
4:14 - 4:27 , what a wonderful articulation. Richter is truly able to emphasize notes on the score. Quite often nowadays we hear Bach's music played too fast, with overlapping notes. Richter instead chooses tempo and articulation in order to highlight and search depth in Bach's masterpieces.
It's funny: a Russian/Norwegian woman is sitting in Thailand, looking for the best interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach. This is without a doubt Karl Richter -the brilliant😍 German organist-recorded in 1963. So many years have passed; such a long distance... but this music will never be lost, as well as the great spirit of the German people, unique and amazing, giving so much to all mankind.
@@OttobeurenKaiser Every time I listen to this celestial recording, I am feel immensely grateful for your involvement in sharing this divine performance
I agree with all you say, & about Germany, das Land der Dichter & Denker. Und Musik!! (The land of the poet & the philosopher). But you must hear Helmuth Walcha as well. He was blind, so had a very sensitive touch & ear.
Great, beautiful comment with an evermore important underlying message about the true importance and beauty of unity, freedom and humanity! No matter the country we were born in; no matter which political 'system' we currently live under; no matter the language we speak - Ultimately, our differences pale when compared to the countless similarities and desires we, as the human race/species all share. Never forget that we are all, in a sense, brothers and sisters. Let us not be torn apart because political leaders tell us to hate - or even fight and kill each other... but let us rejoice in the beauty of life - be it through music, art, science or love. Thank you and everyone else in these comments; for your beautiful and important words!
Yes! (Even without fully hearing (and, thus, feeling) the sound of 16 foot pipes!) Hearing it was, again, an absolutely astounding aural experience! (Bach, alone, in excelsis?)
I've always loved Karl's interpretation of Bach's organ music - I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Outside of Karl, I normally hear this piece belted out Organo pleno, and I think it kills it. This interpretation is full of colour, subtlety and majesty, and feels like it is constantly elevating, until, finally it reaches a heavenly destination. RIP Karl. SDG Bach.
While I probably generally agree with you about how wearing nonstop organo pleno can be, some of the skillful manage to pull it off, like Luc Beauséjour and Ton Koopman, both on yt, especially Luc, a relatively unknown but to me extremely fine performer. He also finely does Böhm's Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, better than any I know, something I usually find not the case for the French, even the late, great Marie-Claire Alain, whom I love and find riveting when playing Alain, where she was obviously THE authority, thankfully much established by numberless recordings, but often avoid when it comes to the Baroque. There seems to be a perennial French-German antagonism few escape that prevents each from playing the other's music properly; there are likely other antagonistic combinations given the limitations of man's sinful condition.
Russ, thanks for that, I'll look up those performances you mentioned. It's always wonderful coming across new, previously unknown treasures. As to man's sinful condition, I echo another Bach motif, Jesu Juva.
This piece has some very powerfull dissonant harmonies, many of which are in the beginning, and I feel they are not put in value enough without the Organo pleno. And I also feel this interpretation is too slow. But It’s true that full Organo pleno can kill the progression that this interpretation has.
Maybe Tony Banks, but he played a different sort of music (although similar in comparison to classical, Genesis writing was more... expressive of English heritage and the strive for the common good).
Yes. It is simply that way. His music had power, depth, width, emotion, transcendence and an general vibe of something bigger than mankind, and obviously incredible beauty. The only classical composer who's music regulary makes me cry.
It takes no less than four hands, one pair of feet, 5 keyboard to play this timeless masterpeice. Richter nail it with this performance. Absolutly epic.
In my top five favorite Bach masterworks. This performance is inspired and closer to the heart of it’s obviously deep Buxtehude impressions. Music of miracles.
At 3:54 chord of the Neapolitan sixth.The second one is placed before the end of the fugue,14:31,the greatest unprepared Neapolitan sixth in music history.
The strongest impression of my childhood! For more than 30 years, I have been trying to find a similar interpretation - but no. This is a masterpiece! Hey, 😉 people in 2020, we talk about optimizing consciousness, connecting our thinking in the network.... Nonsense! Listen and you will find something infinitely greater in yourself.
My favorite rendition of this piece. Richter's performance is much more gentle and musical than anyone else's I've heard yet. It feels like this was the way this work is meant to be played.
@@daangroeneveld5308 Did it, and I definitely prefer Richter's performance. Bach's music is not about notes, harmony or tempo, it's about God. Playing Bach's pieces is like praying (in church or a mosque). So I prefer how Richter prays God
On dirait que Karl Richter et cette Passacaille se sont épousés un jour , et forment un couple indestructible ! Existe-t-il un grand Riep au ciel de nos dieux ?
This is one of the most powerful pieces I have ever heard. Listening to it makes me think about how the cosmos is unthinkably large and doesn't care about us. I don't mean that in a bad way. This piece is like the musical equivalent of looking at the Hubble Deep Field. It's too bad there's no air in space to be able to play it. From the lowest notes to the highest notes. From the largest galaxy to the smallest particle. Bach was a master.
I would say the Toccata and Fugue in D captures your sentiment but in a more profound way. That piece has a much clearer expansion contour to it that is intrinsic to the music and not merely the result of the orchestration/pulling out of more stops. And add to it the orchestrated version by Leopold Shostakovich and you have a heart wrenching mind-blowing masterpiece on steroids. However, when I think of that other work, Tocatta and Fugue in D, it makes me think of a person's experience when first meeting the creator of the cosmos and the cataclysmic, and catastrophic glory that would overwhelm the senses. A glory that no human eye could behold, nor the human mind could contain or grasp without being utterly dissolved in stupified majesty.
Oh the flow..... Please relax and feel Karl Richters easy flow through Bachs evry note.....This is what Bach intended...a flow...harmonous....Feelings bubbling within.... Just beautiful...........
I love this performance so much, and have listened to it again and again. I’m always amazed by organists who can commit such monstrous works to memory-not that it’s a requirement for me to enjoy a performance-especially because of the stop pulling when there aren’t pistons. I love that the mixtures at the end are out of tune, which in every other instrument or singer would drive me crazy, and the organ box is stunning! Fabulous performance of one of my favorite works of Bach!
No one ever has and probably never will interpret Bach's organ canon so sublimely as Karl Richter. A genius whose early death has deprived the world of much.
A magnificent version of what is, in my opinion, the finest piece of music for organ. I never tire of hearing it when played by the likes of Karl Richter, Piet Kee and Gillian Weir. The Toccata in d minor has become a weary old war-horse, but this great Passacaglia in c - never!
I keep searching and coming back to this performance. This instrument together with Richter's interpretation are engraved on my memory. Starting at 6:10 , the voices of this magical organ are like a vision of an enchanted kingdom, a Brothers Grimm fairytale, a magical castle in the clouds.
This recording was made on one of Germany's finest organs: Silberman organ in Freiberg Cathdral. The video was recorded in Ottobeuren Monastery. Check out photos of the places. Mindblowing
My favorite piece by Bach to play. I love the clever variations in the Passacaglia theme and how it moves between the manuals and pedals, at times almost hidden. The best part is at 8:43 where, after dozens of repetitions of the theme, it reaches a climax that sounds like the musical equivalent of madness.
I call it a "Variations on a Theme by Bach!"Ben, all that you said is so true!! WOW!! Can you imagine watching him in person?!?!, As Bethovab once said, " He's not a bach, he's an ocean!!" Well said!!
I love Richter’s playing, not just because it’s both insanely precise and insanely musical, but because his choice of registrations is breathtakingly lovely, but because _you can clearly hear every note in the counterpoint so clearly!_ You’d think all organists would have the same emphasis on counterpoint, but many truly don’t, typically because their choices of registration make the music way too loud and very muddy. Richter solved that problem as all good organists do. The other thing I love about this recording is that some of the Reed and mixtures are out of tune. And they always are on old organs, and I love it!!
Thank you for your efforts in posting this. I often heard the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor played by my wife during her many senior year practice sessions and recitals leading up to her senior recital. That was many, many years ago. Brings wonderful memories. Again, thank you.
The essence of Bach's compositions is mathematic on it's purest form, the manifestation of abstract perfection on music. I believe that this may be what sounds so complete, so "godly" and so pure.
The laws of Physics can be expressed mathematically, Math is the universal language of the Cosmos to quote Carl Sagan. Intelligent consciousness is the Cosmos attempting to know itself. The genius of Bach is that he could open a window into this order & beauty.
We must recognize the dedication of the master craftsmen that faithfully reconditioned the organ at Freiburg Cathedral to perfect tune. The instrument is magnificent.
It's impressive the ability he has to perform in a very meticulous way speaking about rithm, but at the same time the piece does not acquires a mechanical interpretation, it's fantastic.
Music for the End of Times... Best interpretation ever! While most others simply play yet another Bach tonal exercise, Richter is building a Cathedral. He takes his time and the results are magnificent, poetic, clear and indeed, Romantic. Thank god he dared to play like this, otherwise we would have never heard a true masterpiece!
My opinion of E Power Biggs rendition? The organ version is not interesting, but the way he play this piece on the pedal harpsichord - yes! That is what I'm asking for! Lot of improvisations, inegalite etc, it sounds great! Im studying church music back in the 1970' and work some years as a chuch musican. But I had to give up due to my emotional dysfunction.
You are quite right ! Some people say he is the greater interpreter. An organist that has seen him in tour,many years ago,said he played for 3 hours continuously and that his performance was so marvellous. Many people that listened to him had the perception to hear the real Bach through him. At the beginning I believed that them exaggerated,but after having listened to him,I believe them,and that he brought the real Bach's Tradition.
Burkhard C. Schipper, yes, this is the audio from the Silbermann Organ in the Cathedral of Freiberg. The video is from the Ottobeuren Abbey, but when they recorded it, the microphones were poorly placed and the sound was very muddy, so I put the Silbermann audio to the video in Ottobeuren.
This is a wonderful rendition - actually gives me chills. Richter seems to have such a wonderful feel for the piece and stays in such control. I’ve heard so many other overplayed versions.
this is truly the most inspired piece of music ever written. Bach was the best and this is his best played by the best . Every note portrays the glory of God , the Alpha and Omega,the Old Testament and the New I have loved this particular piece of music from a very early age and now in my old age can just thank God on High for the gift He has given these two talented men.
This organ musical work it's the universe done music. Karl Richter is my favourite Bach's performer. He it gave to Bach's works deep and intense emotions. Thank you!
A genialidade de Bach encontra em Karl Richter seu intérprete. Em lugar do uso excessivo do "Full organ" Karl Richter trabalha a sutileza monumental dessa obra com inúmeras sonoridades, riqueza característica do Grande Órgão, e nos leva a um mundo sonoro de extrema beleza, aliadas a sua técnica de clareza impecável, um fraseado e conclusão, dignos da obra de Bach
É exactamente isso... não há ninguém que melhor interprete esta genial obra de Bach do que KRicther. A sua sensibilidade e inteligência parece transfigurar as notas que compõem esta obra em verdadeiras palavras que as emoções são aqui escapelizadas e distinguidas de um modo insuperável. Poesia absoluta, é o que é...
Fun as the video is, let me just say a massive thank you for posting the AUDIO of this performance. Apart from a vinyl recording I still have of Lionel Rogg at the Grossmunster organ, this is the best version of J S Bach's lovely Passacaglia and Fugue I have ever heard. And on JSB's 331th birthday, 21 March 2016! Thanks!!!
+Brian D Steel Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this masterpiece by Bach interpreted by the legendary Karl Richter! Spread this video around social media so that the youth of our generation shall know both of their talents. :)
I have heard a version by Edgard Power Biggs, I find it far better, both in terms of registration and in terms of playing But this is purely subjective... ;)
That nice. Get over it. Yes, there are things eternal and things temporal. So what are you going to do with about it. To withdraw offers neither hope or excuse. To Try... is the whole of the Law. When you're dead you'll understand it a little bit better... maybe. It's not whether we win or loose. It's whether we tried... or not. And in that spirit we either shine or we... haven't yet... risen to the occasion. Listen... and you will learn. TRY
14:31 Chord of the Neapolitan Sixth ( i.e. D flat major in c minor ). This unprepared Neapolitan stands like a milestone in music history and has never been surpassed in its overwhelming power by nobody.
Un des plus grands moments musicaux de ma vie fut d'avoir pu écouter Karl Richter à Notre-Dame de Paris, lors de l'inauguration de l'orgue qui venait d'être restauré. C'est grand, Notre-Dame, mais la nef était aussi bondée qu'un wagon de métro, et quand Richter "attaqua" ce fut grandiose. L'orgue de Notre-Dame n'est pas le meilleur de Paris mais avec Richter il fut immense.
Thank you very much for sharing this absolutely splendid video of a master performing the work of a master on a masterpiece of an instrument. The fact that someone has seen fit to design this video streaming platform such that it injected an advertisement into the middle of this performance is an offense which should be punishable by law. That was very jarring and unpleasant.
If God would play an instrument, it would be the organ. And Richter would be his organist. And I'm not religious but this piece just transcends us mere mortals...
I find myself returning to this performance time after time. It is the most glorious piece of music performed by a master of Bach's style. I just imagine listening to Bach playing this, and possibly improvising from one performance to the next, as the congregation left the church . He must have been enjoying glorifying God in his own way.
Such a genius like bach makes me believe that indeed something exist beyond our physical universe. Awesome piece played by a talended musician such as Richter
I heard Maestro Richter twice - once at an organ recital, and the other when he conducted a choral program, both in Munich, his city. Truly truly impressive musician. I love this performance - brings tears to my eyes. To Minoru Yoshida 吉田実さんですか？日本語を見て嬉しくなりました。私がミュンヘンで聞いたときはバッハだけではなく、マックスレーガーを弾かれたと思います。もう大昔の事なので（１９６５？）記憶は薄れていますが、感激した事はたしかです。そうして、二度目の時の聖歌隊の歌の素晴らしかった事！もう一度あの経験をしたいです。
Oh Mr Richter! I wish I could have met you and told you how amazing it is that you use your articulation to give a dramatic sense of change of intensity in this monumental masterpiece. Of course some people will criticise the "romantic" registaration, but the sheer quality of a moment of rhetorical pause that you intuit, and then same where Herr Bach clearly intended a sense of dramatic forward energy (which this piece has in spade-fulls and then some) are so so well done here. The "relentlessness" of the 20 or so statements of the theme comes through so powerfully, you just don't know how it can end........ and then the fugue, which you allow to release the energy of the passacaglia at first then build to its devastating climax. I know this piece and play it from memory, but THIS is what Herr Bach meant it to say!! In awe......
Hieno esitys Richteriltä (aikaisemmin kuulematon minulle).. Äänikerrat paikallaan - lempeitä, viiltäviä, selkeitä, artikulaatio fuugan teemassa ja tempo hieno, laulumainen. Vertaisin edesmenneen Michael Schneiderin levytykseen vuodelta 1969 Schleswigin uruilla. Itse teos, ikäänkuin virsi on, niinkuin tiedämme lohdutus ja helpotus kaikille. Voisi sanoa: "Jos ei löydy kyyneleitä ja hymyä painu helvettiin" (T.-S.Eliot). Wonderful registeration and playing by the great musician. The music makes you weep and smile - the task of Bach.
50 years ago I first heard this piece while in college listening almost exclusively to J.S. Bach and it became my most favorite Bach piece for a long time, even now still one of my favorites. The funny thing was at the time I discovered this piece and played it over and over again, I was reading the “On the Origin of the Species” by Darwin. So this majestic powerful music has in my mind been inseparably entangled with the theory of evolution! If you can imagine reading for the first time how Darwin developed his theory of how life evolved from the simple one cell organism to the complex multi-cellular organisms exploding into great multitudes of species, then you might realize how this Bach piece, composed 150 years before Darwin, is a great musical accompaniment! The Bach piece starts with a deep slow single voice that evolves into a fast massive complex conglomerate of voices. Further, numerous times it reaches a grand crescendo and then halts momentarily but quickly it starts over with just a single voice. These events represent the multiple times that life on Earth experienced mass extinctions that nearly wiped out all life. But some life survived and started over immediately evolving into new even more complex life forms. So with this Bach piece I hear the story of evolution - life beginning, pulsating, evolving, expanding, collapsing and recovering to reach even greater new heights! However, the piece ends with a tremendous magnitude of voices representing mankind today but then silence with the voices reverberating and vanishing into space - leaving one to wonder if that is the end of life on Earth!
God! Amazing performance of this work, Solemn, deep, serious, calculated and occasional staccatos that create fractions of refreshing tensions- perhaps to come back to the solemn and absolutely deep flame of faith that J. S. Bach overwhelms us with, I enjoyed it Mr. Richter. I heard you live in Stuttgart in 1985 and saw Master Helmut Rilling performing Bach's Cantatas in the same year.
I want to underline that the great Karl Richter never played Bach in a romantic way, as he himself said in many interviews and as he declared to the NYT in 1979: "For me romantik are Schumann or Wagner. Romantischer would be Bach if played with Crescendi and Decrescendi and Rubato, but we didn't play like this in Leipzig ( the city where Richter studied before fleeing to the West). People who claim that are simply wrong and VERSTEHEN einfach NICHTS von Musik... (do not understand a thing about music)". These are the unequivocal words of the Maestro. And in another interview in 1974 he said: "Es ist ein Irrtum dass ich Bach Romantisch spiele, wie mir viele vorwerfen. Wir haben bloss das Phrasieren bei Straube gelernt, im Gegensatz zum motorischen und mechanischen Abspielen von Bach. Die Leute verwechseln Phrasieren mit Romantik. Alle grossen Musiker atmen mit der Musik, und phrasieren eben- es ist ja wichtig die Struktur dadurch aufzubauen. Wenn ich zum Beispiel die Disposition einer Barockorgel betrachte, auf der Bach selber gespielt hat, dann weiss ich doch genau wie er mit den Farben dieser Orgel umgegangen ist. Sehen Sie sich seine Choralvariationen an: Bach provoziert ja die Farben." It is clear that Richter knew how to play Bach through the art of playing the organ, that is why he was and is so successful.
annam cancarini Well, if the Maestro said so, I guess that Busoni, Richter, Horowitz, Argerich, and every other great pianists who gave romantic renditions of Bach can hang themselves. Bach wrote no indications on his sheets. Which by itself is an indication : « play it as you wish ! »
F Paina What if not ? The « philological » interpretations disappear ? Puppies die ? Planet Earth explodes ? Having romantic interpretations of Bach in addition to baroque interpretations do not remove a single thing from the surface of the Earth : it adds more music, more beauty, more contentment. Why in heaven would it be « needed » not to have that ?
I do not agree. To play "philological"( period practice, period instruments) is pedantic and leads to mannerism or boring performances. Fortunately this fashion is fading. There is nothing worse in music than a period practice baroque ensemble born in the Eighties with its scratching, out of tune old instruments. Awful!@@cromorno8749
@@annamcancarini6953 have you ever really study music? I think you are American. I've never heard an american musician playing classical music (baroque, classical, romantic, symphonyc) in the right way!!!!! In USA they don't teach the "πράξις" that you need to play well!!!! Yes, I've just use a Greek word, but in USA you're generally ignorants!!! So, come in Europe and study!
Astonishing. If sound was comming from one recording and video from a second source, no difference between keytstroke and sound is perceibable, as if the master was able to play it at the very same exact tempo time after time.
litosvaca7 Mind-boggling! I'm an organist and simply do not see anything that gives away SkullKids substitution. It certainly illuminates Richter's being a legendary player!
+BearAZ I slowed down some parts in the original video with a video-editing software so that the audio would be in-sync. Though that does not undermine Karl Richter being a legendary player! :)
Karl Richter, Bach, Ottobeuren. Moi j’ai les larmes aux yeux. Quelle finesse, quelle expression dans son jeu, tout y est. On ne s’improvise pas organiste.
TheApostleofRock, I am sorry for my inadequate English. Quote: "The power and variety of color....." You touch the problem, which performance sounds best, "romantic" or "authentic?" Organists who don't play like Karl Richter make attempts to restore this old music after studying old sources. Karl Richter did not cared about the question, so he played the way he liked. I understand that many people who's unfamiliar to the music prefer Richters performances. But for me, all the changes of stops sounds like interuptions, I need the "boring" "authentic" way of playing.
@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Bach was an organist, he would use all the potential of his pipe organ. Play on one combinason is just idiot, you just use 5% of the organ. Richter use all his knowledge and the power of this organ to make the piece sing. It's just a shame to not want to make the piece sing because pedantic musicologist say that you need to play that way and not this way.
William Fossardo, quote: "Play on one combinason is just idiot..." william, be careful by using the word "idiot." Are you sure that you got the knowlegde to jugde? I am not so sure. This music was composed for about 300 years ago. It is important to keep in mind - neither Bach or his contemporaries was able to listening to music after their own lifetime. But what about you and me? Wow! All the different kind of music we are familiar with, but was created after Bach's lifetime. You step in the same trap as many other people: You can not mix the 1800-style to the baroque periode. There are a lot of old written sources that gives us many details of how they perform their music in the 1700'. Some sources say that a Passacaglia often was performed with a pleno. William, I don't like to be arrogant, but how to tell you this in another way? I am able to catch the qualities of the composition itself. I don't need any changes, and I don't want any changes, because every changes of stops sounds like annoying interruptions to me. I disagree by the way Karl Richter begins. The registration is very light, therefore it is difficult to catch all those wonderful dissonanses in the beginning variations. Dissonances is an important part of the music! With a pleno the dissonanses is more easy to catch. William, there are to mainstreams in this case: Those who are not interesting in restoring, and people like me who think it's important to make attempts to bring this old music closer to the original style. Karl Richter was influenced of his contemporaries, a musical style unknown to Bach. But the problem is solved! In our days we can choose. You prefer Richter, and I prefer "authentic" performances.
@@geiryvindeskeland7208 The problem is that people like you, say that Richter play Bach's orchestral too monotonous but the aim of pipe organ is to sound like an orchestra. So why when Richter play with contrast of color and power of sound you are saying it's not authentic ? I don't understand. And if you don't like change of stops, stop listening to pipe organ. And i keep my words play a piece with one combinason is idiot.
Few people are actually aware of the fact that this monumental piece was written down by Bach at the age of 22 (twenty two).-Absolutely incredible.
There were full professors at age 20 back in the days. Adulthood was quicker, as was death sooner.
The Passacaglia in d minor by Buxtehude was without doubt the root of inspiration. Bach spent several months with him in Luebeck.
Michael Juergen Very true indeed!
Michael Juergen We all and every learn from our predecessors
Michael Juergen YES ~ I fully support this comment, this piece has deep Buxtehude impressions / spirit.
Yeah , THIS is the man who made me LOVE Bach Music , for so many many years . Thanks forever Karl !
Me too. It's a shame he died at such a young age. Many attended his funeral including Leonard Bernstein. RIP Karl Richter...
Me too.
And his legacy is immortal.
This is a perfect recording. Absolutely flawless performance. Richter playing one of Bach’s titanic pieces with so much emotion and individuality.. can’t get enough of it.
A perfect match of composer, performer and instrument. I'd would have loved to have sat on a back bench and listen to this magnificent performance unfold. The stop choices, the reverberance, the sounding and decay of each note. This would be my heaven on this earth. The instrument is simply extraordinarily beautiful. The playing sheer mastery. Truly, divine. (oh, yeah, old man Bach gave a pedal passage to die for ❤)
@@JoePalau😅i
ki9i
I always enjoy the triumphant ending with a Picardy Third!
Hard to beat that performance, and he memorized the whole piece. Good old Karl was the reason why I started to listen to Bach 40 yrs ago. The passions were done on a monumental scale, and Erbarme Dich is the most moving piece ever.
Excellent interpretation.
Richter ...gone too soon.
R.I.P
Richter just amazes me whenever I listen to him. People accuse him of being too much of a romantic when he performs my music, but pay no heed, those people know nothing.
I find his interpretations of Bach thoroughly absorbing.
Johann Sebastian Bach Richter is number one, end of discussion.
Kk Ff no one comes close👍
I don't like this much his recordings as a conductor, historical performance practices studies have by now marched on and performances by him and "his" Münchener Bach-Orchester are by now quite dated, but as an organist still is spot on. Probably helps the fact the organs he used still were quite close in construction to 17th- and 18th-Century ones, those Bach would have played on, and he took full advantage of their peculiarities (I really like German organs, and find them to be the best blend between clarity and power).
This performance of Bach's Passacaglia in C minor is outstanding.
Johann Sebastian Bach Agree. Just listen, and enjoy this very great art of music.
4:14 - 4:27 , what a wonderful articulation. Richter is truly able to emphasize notes on the score. Quite often nowadays we hear Bach's music played too fast, with overlapping notes. Richter instead chooses tempo and articulation in order to highlight and search depth in Bach's masterpieces.
Extraordinair
That bass man
It's funny: a Russian/Norwegian woman is sitting in Thailand, looking for the best interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach. This is without a doubt Karl Richter -the brilliant😍 German organist-recorded in 1963. So many years have passed; such a long distance... but this music will never be lost, as well as the great spirit of the German people, unique and amazing, giving so much to all mankind.
One of the best comments on here! Karl Richter has the power to connect people from all over the world.
@@OttobeurenKaiser Every time I listen to this celestial recording, I am feel immensely grateful for your involvement in sharing this divine performance
I agree with all you say, & about Germany, das Land der Dichter & Denker. Und Musik!! (The land of the poet & the philosopher). But you must hear Helmuth Walcha as well. He was blind, so had a very sensitive touch & ear.
Great, beautiful comment with an evermore important underlying message about the true importance and beauty of unity, freedom and humanity! No matter the country we were born in; no matter which political 'system' we currently live under; no matter the language we speak - Ultimately, our differences pale when compared to the countless similarities and desires we, as the human race/species all share.
Never forget that we are all, in a sense, brothers and sisters. Let us not be torn apart because political leaders tell us to hate - or even fight and kill each other... but let us rejoice in the beauty of life - be it through music, art, science or love.
Thank you and everyone else in these comments; for your beautiful and important words!
Outstanding play 10 of 10 possible of Richter scale.
Excellent playing on words! I still keep an old cassette of 4 organ recitals by K. Richter. 10 of 10
Erlingur Thorsteinsson Karl Richter, always one of my absolute favorites.
Clearly an Earth Shattering performance
If this was recorded in the Church St. Peter's brother, was it a rumbling due to or upon San Andreas fault?
Zowat het mooiste wat ik ken van Bach door Richter !gespeeld
Bach’s music touches on something as deeply universal and mysterious as the deepest parts of space
Kesinlikle bana da öyle geliyor özellikle bu müziğin 4. Dakikasından sonra
Yes! (Even without fully hearing (and, thus, feeling) the sound of 16 foot pipes!)
Hearing it was, again, an absolutely astounding aural experience!
(Bach, alone, in excelsis?)
I've always loved Karl's interpretation of Bach's organ music - I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Outside of Karl, I normally hear this piece belted out Organo pleno, and I think it kills it. This interpretation is full of colour, subtlety and majesty, and feels like it is constantly elevating, until, finally it reaches a heavenly destination. RIP Karl. SDG Bach.
While I probably generally agree with you about how wearing nonstop organo pleno can be, some of the skillful manage to pull it off, like Luc Beauséjour and Ton Koopman, both on yt, especially Luc, a relatively unknown but to me extremely fine performer. He also finely does Böhm's Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, better than any I know, something I usually find not the case for the French, even the late, great Marie-Claire Alain, whom I love and find riveting when playing Alain, where she was obviously THE authority, thankfully much established by numberless recordings, but often avoid when it comes to the Baroque. There seems to be a perennial French-German antagonism few escape that prevents each from playing the other's music properly; there are likely other antagonistic combinations given the limitations of man's sinful condition.
Russ, thanks for that, I'll look up those performances you mentioned. It's always wonderful coming across new, previously unknown treasures. As to man's sinful condition, I echo another Bach motif, Jesu Juva.
Many arrangements of this piece are very loud and heavy, and it sounds evil and sinister.
@ Tim. Totally agree. Totally.
This piece has some very powerfull dissonant harmonies, many of which are in the beginning, and I feel they are not put in value enough without the Organo pleno. And I also feel this interpretation is too slow. But It’s true that full Organo pleno can kill the progression that this interpretation has.
It is always fascinating to see how Bach absolutely obliterates anything else in comparison. He truly is Phenomenal!
Has anyone even come close to Bach in all this time ?
No.- He will stand alone forever and eternity.
Maybe Tony Banks, but he played a different sort of music (although similar in comparison to classical, Genesis writing was more... expressive of English heritage and the strive for the common good).
Little known fact is that Bach's 'day job' was as an organ tester and much of his work was with that use in mind.
Yes. It is simply that way. His music had power, depth, width, emotion, transcendence and an general vibe of something bigger than mankind, and obviously incredible beauty. The only classical composer who's music regulary makes me cry.
It takes no less than four hands, one pair of feet, 5 keyboard to play this timeless masterpeice. Richter nail it with this performance. Absolutly epic.
In my top five favorite Bach masterworks. This performance is inspired and closer to the heart of it’s obviously deep Buxtehude impressions. Music of miracles.
could i ask you what is your top fivebach masterworks
One of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind, played flawlessly.
The only Pasacaglia Bach wrote
The most imaginative use of registration that I have ever heard for his piece.
Simon Preston's is also great
Summit of genius - the greatness of Bach and the peerless playing of Richter - a life-enhancing experience
At 3:54 chord of the Neapolitan sixth.The second one is placed before the end of the fugue,14:31,the greatest unprepared Neapolitan sixth in music history.
Very common in Bach's music however, especially in transitions in organ music
Hats off to the assistant, too for his help!🤗🤗 Love this musical selection.
The strongest impression of my childhood! For more than 30 years, I have been trying to find a similar interpretation - but no. This is a masterpiece!
Hey, 😉 people in 2020, we talk about optimizing consciousness, connecting our thinking in the network.... Nonsense! Listen and you will find something infinitely greater in yourself.
Walcha's interpretation is outstanding too.
Simon Preston's is amazing
Outstandingly Performed. My teacher told me to watch every single Note - here we can hear it at its best!
Bach. What life experiences did this man have? His understanding of human emotions is so deep and vast it's almost frightening.
It was due to the close relationship he had with his Master, our Creator.
Read his biography. His life was not easy.
thousand of years of experience and even more
thank you for your comment.I had the same thoughts
The same ones we do, just faster and probably more often especially re: tragedy.
Richter gives this piece an incredible sensitivity of touch and rich texture which is all but lost when simply 'belting it out'. Simply lovely.
A legend. Richter always played without score by memory !!
Luca Ogliari Indeed!! Or as he preferred saying, "With the Heart" 😊
I did not expect much from this performance by Richter, but boy was I positively surprised. I very much like his choice of registers and his phrasing.
My favorite rendition of this piece. Richter's performance is much more gentle and musical than anyone else's I've heard yet. It feels like this was the way this work is meant to be played.
Karl Richter is, in my opinion, the only musician that really understood and felt what J.S.Bach really wanted to transmit through his masterpieces
Watching Bach's passacaglia performed by Reitze Smits might make you reconsider your opinion...
I'm not agree at all
@@daangroeneveld5308 Did it, and I definitely prefer Richter's performance. Bach's music is not about notes, harmony or tempo, it's about God. Playing Bach's pieces is like praying (in church or a mosque). So I prefer how Richter prays God
Forgetting about E. Power Biggs . The best version I have ever heard is without a doubt him on the Harvard Flentrop.
On dirait que Karl Richter et cette Passacaille se sont épousés un jour , et forment un couple indestructible !
Existe-t-il un grand Riep au ciel de nos dieux ?
To put this by heart... can imagine how many hours he spent exploring the piece.
+Fábio Palma Karl Richter has almost always played by heart... or as he liked to call it, "with" the heart. :)
This is one of the most powerful pieces I have ever heard.
Listening to it makes me think about how the cosmos is unthinkably large and doesn't care about us. I don't mean that in a bad way. This piece is like the musical equivalent of looking at the Hubble Deep Field. It's too bad there's no air in space to be able to play it.
From the lowest notes to the highest notes. From the largest galaxy to the smallest particle.
Bach was a master.
is bach lovecraft? i wonder if he was going for anything that existential, hah.
I would say the Toccata and Fugue in D captures your sentiment but in a more profound way. That piece has a much clearer expansion contour to it that is intrinsic to the music and not merely the result of the orchestration/pulling out of more stops. And add to it the orchestrated version by Leopold Shostakovich and you have a heart wrenching mind-blowing masterpiece on steroids.
However, when I think of that other work, Tocatta and Fugue in D, it makes me think of a person's experience when first meeting the creator of the cosmos and the cataclysmic, and catastrophic glory that would overwhelm the senses. A glory that no human eye could behold, nor the human mind could contain or grasp without being utterly dissolved in stupified majesty.
Bach was much more than a master. He was a miracle.
@@jansnauwaert1785 A prodigy among the humankind
I had similiar thoughts.
Oh the flow..... Please relax and feel Karl Richters easy flow through Bachs evry note.....This is what Bach intended...a flow...harmonous....Feelings bubbling within.... Just beautiful...........
Bach composed this piece at the age of 22, inspired by the Passacaglia in d minor by Buxtehude.An unsurpassed achievement until today,and forever.
Here's the Buxtehude - certainly sounds like it!
th-cam.com/video/R3aOgFVybtg/w-d-xo.html
I love this performance so much, and have listened to it again and again. I’m always amazed by organists who can commit such monstrous works to memory-not that it’s a requirement for me to enjoy a performance-especially because of the stop pulling when there aren’t pistons. I love that the mixtures at the end are out of tune, which in every other instrument or singer would drive me crazy, and the organ box is stunning! Fabulous performance of one of my favorite works of Bach!
No one ever has and probably never will interpret Bach's organ canon so sublimely as Karl Richter. A genius whose early death has deprived the world of much.
Adrian, thank you! Karl Richter was the best Bach player. God rest his soul!
A magnificent version of what is, in my opinion, the finest piece of music for organ. I never tire of hearing it when played by the likes of Karl Richter, Piet Kee and Gillian Weir. The Toccata in d minor has become a weary old war-horse, but this great Passacaglia in c - never!
Colin Gantiglew yes you are right, this dominates BWV 565
Great, fantastic and immortal Karl Richter!!! Respect forever!!! 👍👍👍
Richter und Bach, was für eine Symbiose!!!
Einzigartig!
The best comparable entities I ever heard!!!..
Это чудо....не возможное чудо,но оно состоялось....да благословен будет Господь...как здорово...великий Бах...!!!¡
I keep searching and coming back to this performance. This instrument together with Richter's interpretation are engraved on my memory. Starting at 6:10 , the voices of this magical organ are like a vision of an enchanted kingdom, a Brothers Grimm fairytale, a magical castle in the clouds.
This recording was made on one of Germany's finest organs: Silberman organ in Freiberg Cathdral. The video was recorded in Ottobeuren Monastery. Check out photos of the places. Mindblowing
My favorite piece by Bach to play. I love the clever variations in the Passacaglia theme and how it moves between the manuals and pedals, at times almost hidden. The best part is at 8:43 where, after dozens of repetitions of the theme, it reaches a climax that sounds like the musical equivalent of madness.
Dan McMullan Yes, I completely agree!!
Pure madness & clear sanity at the same moment.
There's definitely a lot of method in that madness...
I call it a "Variations on a Theme by Bach!"Ben, all that you said is so true!! WOW!! Can you imagine watching him in person?!?!, As Bethovab once said, " He's not a bach, he's an ocean!!" Well said!!
Dear Dan, regarding the bwv 582, particullary Karl's version of the 582, there is no best part. The whole piece from start to end is the best part.
I love Richter’s playing, not just because it’s both insanely precise and insanely musical, but because his choice of registrations is breathtakingly lovely, but because _you can clearly hear every note in the counterpoint so clearly!_ You’d think all organists would have the same emphasis on counterpoint, but many truly don’t, typically because their choices of registration make the music way too loud and very muddy. Richter solved that problem as all good organists do. The other thing I love about this recording is that some of the Reed and mixtures are out of tune. And they always are on old organs, and I love it!!
Thank you for your efforts in posting this. I often heard the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor played by my wife during her many senior year practice sessions and recitals leading up to her senior recital. That was many, many years ago. Brings wonderful memories. Again, thank you.
+awkwarddude Thank you so very much. Your comment means a lot.
The essence of Bach's compositions is mathematic on it's purest form, the manifestation of abstract perfection on music. I believe that this may be what sounds so complete, so "godly" and so pure.
The laws of Physics can be expressed mathematically, Math is the universal language of the Cosmos to quote Carl Sagan. Intelligent consciousness is the Cosmos attempting to know itself.
The genius of Bach is that he could open a window into this order & beauty.
@@trespirereligion
Excellent work with the over-dubbing. Very skillfully done. Thank you.
Two geniuses, Bach&Richter. Fantastic music in a fantastic performance.
5:20 omg this guy has three arms that's so amazing
Maumoleseul levrai hh😂😃
ROFL....
From Mars...
He is Karl Ritcher, nothing is Impossible for him!
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
I can see Bach saying : " Thank you, Karl, this is what I had in mind ".
We must recognize the dedication of the master craftsmen that faithfully reconditioned the organ at Freiburg Cathedral to perfect tune.
The instrument is magnificent.
Paramount sound.
No, he can see God the father saying to Bach : " This is what I had in mind ".
oneginee No i see Bach saying to xenu to goku to God the father to Jesus to Karl Richter. Might've gotten the order wrong. Oh well.
Bach would have agreed with oneginee.
Sorry to ruin your fun.
It's impressive the ability he has to perform in a very meticulous way speaking about rithm, but at the same time the piece does not acquires a mechanical interpretation, it's fantastic.
Music for the End of Times... Best interpretation ever! While most others simply play yet another Bach tonal exercise, Richter is building a Cathedral. He takes his time and the results are magnificent, poetic, clear and indeed, Romantic. Thank god he dared to play like this, otherwise we would have never heard a true masterpiece!
True beauty, divine light: the young man who wrote this incarnates both. And the performer understands this in a perfect manner.
The most beautiful and brilliant performance of this Bach's master piece. Thank you very much for posting this video clip.
In awe at the genius of J. S. Bach as always. Richter was a great interpreter of that genius here.
No he wasn't a great interpreter of Bach's organ music. He came from the romantic tradition, they didn't care about how to restore the style.
What do you think of E Power Biggs' rendition (also on youtube)?
Are you an organist by the way?
My opinion of E Power Biggs rendition? The organ version is not interesting, but the way he play this piece on the pedal harpsichord - yes! That is what I'm asking for! Lot of improvisations, inegalite etc, it sounds great!
Im studying church music back in the 1970' and work some years as a chuch musican. But I had to give up due to my emotional dysfunction.
You are quite right ! Some people say he is the greater interpreter. An organist that has seen him in tour,many years ago,said he played for 3 hours continuously and that his performance was so marvellous. Many people that listened to him had the perception to hear the real Bach through him. At the beginning I believed that them exaggerated,but after having listened to him,I believe them,and that he brought the real Bach's Tradition.
The interpretation I fell in love with.
Bloody outstanding performance...listen to it on LSD!
C'est un vrai bijou cette pièce jouée par Karl Richter. Après tant d'années elle demeure toujours intériorisante. Merci d'avoir partagé!
An amazing composition played by a modern legend. Its a blessing to listen to such mastery.
This is lovely. Now I can feel the Baroque Era.. Wunderschön gespielt.. Fürn Gott Bach!
It may sound funny, but in other interpretations with faster tempi the Passacaglia is "too short". With Richter it has the right lenght.
True, this is a passacaglia, not a toccata. It's supposed to be slow than fast
This is the reason why I prefer this version over most of over organist's.
Keter_2438 passacaglia means variation on a basso ostinato. It is the name of a musical form, not a tempo marking.
Burkhard C. Schipper, yes, this is the audio from the Silbermann Organ in the Cathedral of Freiberg. The video is from the Ottobeuren Abbey, but when they recorded it, the microphones were poorly placed and the sound was very muddy, so I put the Silbermann audio to the video in Ottobeuren.
Your skill in making this presentation...OUTSTANDING...indeed, live long and prosper.
So nice working!!!!!!! Thanks(^0^)
SkullKid1222 Well - whatever your crazy name, you did the work of angels!
+SkullKid1222 Magnificent. Utterly quiet Richter brings, playing by heart, pure extasy in the Fuga. You made me happy, SkullKid!
The sound of the Silbermann Organ at Freiberg is utterly amazing.
It is so rich & complex.
This is a wonderful rendition - actually gives me chills. Richter seems to have such a wonderful feel for the piece and stays in such control. I’ve heard so many other overplayed versions.
I never heard an interpretation like that. Dear Karl, you're the best.
We were so fortunate to have Karl Richter among us. One of the 20th century’s greatest musicians. One of the less well known heroes of our age
this is truly the most inspired piece of music ever written. Bach was the best and this is his best played by the best . Every note
portrays the glory of God , the Alpha and Omega,the Old Testament and the New I have loved this particular piece of music from a very early age and now in my old age can just thank God on High for the gift He has given these two talented men.
Die schönste Interpretation dieses göttlichen Werkes! Es lebe Bach und es lebe Richter!!
For sure - from Argentina
Irresistible....there are no words...again, and again...!
6:14 is like the peace in the deepest ocean
Touching the depths of our souls.
This organ musical work it's the universe done music. Karl Richter is my favourite Bach's performer. He it gave to Bach's works deep and intense emotions. Thank you!
Very well done editing! THANK YOU for all the work and posting! Greetings from Canada!
A genialidade de Bach encontra em Karl Richter seu intérprete.
Em lugar do uso excessivo do "Full organ" Karl Richter trabalha a sutileza monumental dessa obra com inúmeras sonoridades, riqueza característica do Grande Órgão, e nos leva a um mundo sonoro de extrema beleza, aliadas a sua técnica de clareza impecável, um fraseado e conclusão, dignos da obra de Bach
É exactamente isso... não há ninguém que melhor interprete esta genial obra de Bach do que KRicther. A sua sensibilidade e inteligência parece transfigurar as notas que compõem esta obra em verdadeiras palavras que as emoções são aqui escapelizadas e distinguidas de um modo insuperável. Poesia absoluta, é o que é...
Fun as the video is, let me just say a massive thank you for posting the AUDIO of this performance. Apart from a vinyl recording I still have of Lionel Rogg at the Grossmunster organ, this is the best version of J S Bach's lovely Passacaglia and Fugue I have ever heard. And on JSB's 331th birthday, 21 March 2016! Thanks!!!
+Brian D Steel Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this masterpiece by Bach interpreted by the legendary Karl Richter! Spread this video around social media so that the youth of our generation shall know both of their talents. :)
Hear, hear.
I have heard a version by Edgard Power Biggs, I find it far better, both in terms of registration and in terms of playing But this is purely subjective... ;)
General Ackbar biggs doesn't compare to k. richter
Why not?
Wow! What a stunning performance! The registration sounds pretty much like an orchestra.
Dios mío " que maravilloso todo " gloria a Dios !
I would give nearly anything to hear Bach perform this
Karl Richter svela la meraviglia, la grandiosità e l'equilibrio perfetto nella musica di Bach. Grazie per aver caricato questa Passacaglia favolosa!
I, in Japan 2017, am crying.
Pyrope Garnet Naite ii tomo!
Me too!!!
That nice. Get over it. Yes, there are things eternal and things temporal. So what are you going to do with about it. To withdraw offers neither hope or excuse. To Try... is the whole of the Law. When you're dead you'll understand it a little bit better... maybe. It's not whether we win or loose. It's whether we tried... or not. And in that spirit we either shine or we... haven't yet... risen to the occasion. Listen... and you will learn. TRY
You're not alone in this cruel world. Bach knows, God knows. Remember it!
why you crying though
14:31 Chord of the Neapolitan Sixth ( i.e. D flat major in c minor ). This unprepared Neapolitan stands like a milestone in music history and has never been surpassed in its overwhelming power by nobody.
Un des plus grands moments musicaux de ma vie fut d'avoir pu écouter Karl Richter à Notre-Dame de Paris, lors de l'inauguration de l'orgue qui venait d'être restauré. C'est grand, Notre-Dame, mais la nef était aussi bondée qu'un wagon de métro, et quand Richter "attaqua" ce fut grandiose.
L'orgue de Notre-Dame n'est pas le meilleur de Paris mais avec Richter il fut immense.
God bless Notre Dame good luck with the restoring also of the organ
Good job with the dubbing - thank you!And a great thank you to Karl Richter and JS Bach.
What dreadfulness ！
I was beside myself .
The impression extends to my soul .
I am struck with awe to our great Bach .
A definitive performance. Karl was incredible.
Thank you very much for sharing this absolutely splendid video of a master performing the work of a master on a masterpiece of an instrument.
The fact that someone has seen fit to design this video streaming platform such that it injected an advertisement into the middle of this performance is an offense which should be punishable by law. That was very jarring and unpleasant.
If God would play an instrument, it would be the organ. And Richter would be his organist.
And I'm not religious but this piece just transcends us mere mortals...
I find myself returning to this performance time after time. It is the most glorious piece of music performed by a master of Bach's style. I just imagine listening to Bach playing this, and possibly improvising from one performance to the next, as the congregation left the church . He must have been enjoying glorifying God in his own way.
we are so blessed to hear this.
Such a genius like bach makes me believe that indeed something exist beyond our physical universe. Awesome piece played by a talended musician such as Richter
Die Göttlichen Harmonien, die uns der Große Karl Richter schenkte !!! Tepper Michael.
I heard Maestro Richter twice - once at an organ recital, and the other when he conducted a choral program, both in Munich, his city. Truly truly impressive musician. I love this performance - brings tears to my eyes.
To Minoru Yoshida 吉田実さんですか？日本語を見て嬉しくなりました。私がミュンヘンで聞いたときはバッハだけではなく、マックスレーガーを弾かれたと思います。もう大昔の事なので（１９６５？）記憶は薄れていますが、感激した事はたしかです。そうして、二度目の時の聖歌隊の歌の素晴らしかった事！もう一度あの経験をしたいです。
karl and johan...beast mode
Oh Mr Richter! I wish I could have met you and told you how amazing it is that you use your articulation to give a dramatic sense of change of intensity in this monumental masterpiece. Of course some people will criticise the "romantic" registaration, but the sheer quality of a moment of rhetorical pause that you intuit, and then same where Herr Bach clearly intended a sense of dramatic forward energy (which this piece has in spade-fulls and then some) are so so well done here. The "relentlessness" of the 20 or so statements of the theme comes through so powerfully, you just don't know how it can end........ and then the fugue, which you allow to release the energy of the passacaglia at first then build to its devastating climax. I know this piece and play it from memory, but THIS is what Herr Bach meant it to say!! In awe......
Ich habe noch nie etwas Schöneres gehört! Eine fabelhafte Leistung, eine erstaunliche Orgel und ein unvergleichlicher Meister.
Hieno esitys Richteriltä (aikaisemmin kuulematon minulle).. Äänikerrat paikallaan - lempeitä, viiltäviä, selkeitä, artikulaatio fuugan teemassa ja tempo hieno, laulumainen. Vertaisin edesmenneen Michael Schneiderin levytykseen vuodelta 1969 Schleswigin uruilla. Itse teos, ikäänkuin virsi on, niinkuin tiedämme lohdutus ja helpotus kaikille. Voisi sanoa: "Jos ei löydy kyyneleitä ja hymyä painu helvettiin" (T.-S.Eliot). Wonderful registeration and playing by the great musician. The music makes you weep and smile - the task of Bach.
50 years ago I first heard this piece while in college listening almost exclusively to J.S. Bach and it became my most favorite Bach piece for a long time, even now still one of my favorites.
The funny thing was at the time I discovered this piece and played it over and over again, I was reading the “On the Origin of the Species” by Darwin. So this majestic powerful music has in my mind been inseparably entangled with the theory of evolution!
If you can imagine reading for the first time how Darwin developed his theory of how life evolved from the simple one cell organism to the complex multi-cellular organisms exploding into great multitudes of species, then you might realize how this Bach piece, composed 150 years before Darwin, is a great musical accompaniment!
The Bach piece starts with a deep slow single voice that evolves into a fast massive complex conglomerate of voices. Further, numerous times it reaches a grand crescendo and then halts momentarily but quickly it starts over with just a single voice. These events represent the multiple times that life on Earth experienced mass extinctions that nearly wiped out all life. But some life survived and started over immediately evolving into new even more complex life forms.
So with this Bach piece I hear the story of evolution - life beginning, pulsating, evolving, expanding, collapsing and recovering to reach even greater new heights!
However, the piece ends with a tremendous magnitude of voices representing mankind today but then silence with the voices reverberating and vanishing into space - leaving one to wonder if that is the end of life on Earth!
This piece is essentially the Truth thrown at your face without pity. I'm still too young for this.
God! Amazing performance of this work, Solemn, deep, serious, calculated and occasional staccatos that create fractions of refreshing tensions- perhaps to come back to the solemn and absolutely deep flame of faith that J. S. Bach overwhelms us with, I enjoyed it Mr. Richter. I heard you live in Stuttgart in 1985 and saw Master Helmut Rilling performing Bach's Cantatas in the same year.
Karl Richter actually died in february 1981,
Really, a very good job. Thank you, Adrian.
I want to underline that the great Karl Richter never played Bach in a romantic way, as he himself said in many interviews and as he declared to the NYT in 1979: "For me romantik are Schumann or Wagner. Romantischer would be Bach if played with Crescendi and Decrescendi and Rubato, but we didn't play like this in Leipzig ( the city where Richter studied before fleeing to the West). People who claim that are simply wrong and VERSTEHEN einfach NICHTS von Musik... (do not understand a thing about music)". These are the unequivocal words of the Maestro. And in another interview in 1974 he said: "Es ist ein Irrtum dass ich Bach Romantisch spiele, wie mir viele vorwerfen. Wir haben bloss das Phrasieren bei Straube gelernt, im Gegensatz zum motorischen und mechanischen Abspielen von Bach. Die Leute verwechseln Phrasieren mit Romantik. Alle grossen Musiker atmen mit der Musik, und phrasieren eben- es ist ja wichtig die Struktur dadurch aufzubauen. Wenn ich zum Beispiel die Disposition einer Barockorgel betrachte, auf der Bach selber gespielt hat, dann weiss ich doch genau wie er mit den Farben dieser Orgel umgegangen ist. Sehen Sie sich seine Choralvariationen an: Bach provoziert ja die Farben." It is clear that Richter knew how to play Bach through the art of playing the organ, that is why he was and is so successful.
annam cancarini Well, if the Maestro said so, I guess that Busoni, Richter, Horowitz, Argerich, and every other great pianists who gave romantic renditions of Bach can hang themselves.
Bach wrote no indications on his sheets. Which by itself is an indication : « play it as you wish ! »
@@trineor no, every tipe of music needs to be played in the filological way!!!
F Paina What if not ? The « philological » interpretations disappear ? Puppies die ? Planet Earth explodes ?
Having romantic interpretations of Bach in addition to baroque interpretations do not remove a single thing from the surface of the Earth : it adds more music, more beauty, more contentment. Why in heaven would it be « needed » not to have that ?
I do not agree. To play "philological"( period practice, period instruments) is pedantic and leads to mannerism or boring performances. Fortunately this fashion is fading. There is nothing worse in music than a period practice baroque ensemble born in the Eighties with its scratching, out of tune old instruments. Awful!@@cromorno8749
@@annamcancarini6953 have you ever really study music? I think you are American. I've never heard an american musician playing classical music (baroque, classical, romantic, symphonyc) in the right way!!!!! In USA they don't teach the "πράξις" that you need to play well!!!! Yes, I've just use a Greek word, but in USA you're generally ignorants!!! So, come in Europe and study!
To borrow from contemporary vernacular....
Now THIS is what i'm talkin' bout!!!!!
Fantastich.
Astonishing. If sound was comming from one recording and video from a second source, no difference between keytstroke and sound is perceibable, as if the master was able to play it at the very same exact tempo time after time.
litosvaca7 I imagine they would do sound and video at the same time?
kingjosh1876 Accordingly to the description above, video & audion come from different events.
litosvaca7 Mind-boggling! I'm an organist and simply do not see anything that gives away SkullKids substitution. It certainly illuminates Richter's being a legendary player!
+BearAZ I slowed down some parts in the original video with a video-editing software so that the audio would be in-sync. Though that does not undermine Karl Richter being a legendary player! :)
It did, actually, because the original audio was very poor, and I remastered it with the audio from a 1978 recording.stephen dwyer
Karl Richter, Bach, Ottobeuren. Moi j’ai les larmes aux yeux. Quelle finesse, quelle expression dans son jeu, tout y est. On ne s’improvise pas organiste.
As long as I live I will never hear anymusic which will surpass this - long live Bach
MAJESTUOSA, EXCELENTE, SUBLIME SEÑOR RICHTER MUCHAS GRACIAS Y MUCHO AMOR 💖💖💖
Wow...how haven't I heard this interpretation yet?? The power and variety of color is unlike any other performance I've ever heard. Very very good.
It requires passion, and an organ with the right 'guts', and this monster just SINGS!!!!!!
TheApostleofRock, I am sorry for my inadequate English. Quote: "The power and variety of color....."
You touch the problem, which performance sounds best, "romantic" or "authentic?" Organists who don't play like Karl Richter make attempts to restore this old music after studying old sources. Karl Richter did not cared about the question, so he played the way he liked. I understand that many people who's unfamiliar to the music prefer Richters performances. But for me, all the changes of stops sounds like interuptions, I need the "boring" "authentic" way of playing.
@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Bach was an organist, he would use all the potential of his pipe organ. Play on one combinason is just idiot, you just use 5% of the organ. Richter use all his knowledge and the power of this organ to make the piece sing.
It's just a shame to not want to make the piece sing because pedantic musicologist say that you need to play that way and not this way.
William Fossardo, quote: "Play on one combinason is just idiot..." william, be careful by using the word "idiot." Are you sure that you got the knowlegde to jugde? I am not so sure. This music was composed for about 300 years ago. It is important to keep in mind - neither Bach or his contemporaries was able to listening to music after their own lifetime. But what about you and me? Wow! All the different kind of music we are familiar with, but was created after Bach's lifetime. You step in the same trap as many other people: You can not mix the 1800-style to the baroque periode. There are a lot of old written sources that gives us many details of how they perform their music in the 1700'. Some sources say that a Passacaglia often was performed with a pleno. William, I don't like to be arrogant, but how to tell you this in another way? I am able to catch the qualities of the composition itself. I don't need any changes, and I don't want any changes, because every changes of stops sounds like annoying interruptions to me. I disagree by the way Karl Richter begins. The registration is very light, therefore it is difficult to catch all those wonderful dissonanses in the beginning variations. Dissonances is an important part of the music! With a pleno the dissonanses is more easy to catch. William, there are to mainstreams in this case: Those who are not interesting in restoring, and people like me who think it's important to make attempts to bring this old music closer to the original style. Karl Richter was influenced of his contemporaries, a musical style unknown to Bach. But the problem is solved! In our days we can choose. You prefer Richter, and I prefer "authentic" performances.
@@geiryvindeskeland7208 The problem is that people like you, say that Richter play Bach's orchestral too monotonous but the aim of pipe organ is to sound like an orchestra. So why when Richter play with contrast of color and power of sound you are saying it's not authentic ?
I don't understand.
And if you don't like change of stops, stop listening to pipe organ.
And i keep my words play a piece with one combinason is idiot.
Karl Richter comme Helmut Walcha, deux grands interprètes de Bach, aux judicieuses registrations.