Virgil Fox - Bach - Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C, BWV 564
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- This recording is from the rare Direct to Disc vinyl record set, "The Fox Touch" Vols. 1 and 2, recorded in August 1977 at the Garden Grove Community Church. The organ was later moved to the Crystal Cathedral. Note: The performances on the records are much better than those found on "The Fox Touch" CD, which is made up from the "out-takes" of the vinyl recording sessions.
This track has been very carefully restored from the vinyl recording by myself, using Izotope RX2 Advanced and Adobe Audition 3. I am sure you will find the audio quality very good indeed, and I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do. The score is from IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) Petrucci Music Library, and re-formatted to fit the screen. This was recorded at the Garden Grove Community Church, the organ later being moved to the Crystal Cathedral.
Beautiful personal and sentimental performance of this work, I'm usually skeptical when I listen to Fox but this one is actually my favorite 564 recording
Thank you for editing and posting this performance. It's wonderful, and BWV 564 is my favorite Bach organ work. As a Virgil Fox fan, I was not aware these Direct-to-Disc records existed.
Thank you for taking the time to share this great recording of the Master, Virgil Fox.
Been awhile since music sent shivers down my spine, been one of my favorite music pieces since a did a college paper 50 years ago. Bless Virgil Fox, and god rest his soul.
I myself love the way it is played!! With the Pedal 32' Bombarded by is a blast all the way to the end of the piece; everything after that is so very much played with the interpretation it needed
..i grandi del XX secolo...
sonosciuto e non apprezzato.....
grandissimo virtuoso e grande concertistista..
.sensibilita'unica, come tutti i grandi,
ringrazio coloro che lo hanno messo in rete, e ricordo che l'Arte...è intangibile...
è la teckné...nella accezione di dono divino.
bravissimo..non faccio l'elenco dei grandi e piccoli...del XX sec.che ci hanno allietati e stimolati .e arricchiti...
...tanto i somari si riconoscono e non fanno altro che notizia,
i grandi fanno commuovere il mondo...
saluti a tutti.
This work is the one which first got me seriously interested in learning to play the organ. It's true that Virgil Fox's playing may not be to everyone's taste, but there's no denying his greatness as a virtuoso organist and a committed musician. The recording I had as a boy was 'Bach Organ Works' played by the legendary French organist Jeanne Demessieux.
Thank you, ID, for your efforts and for sharing this.
Beautiful registration. Delicious woodwind tones in the Adagio.
Completely agree, did a double-take a few times listening to this.
A friendly msg to the critics. What you are hearing is called “Red Blooded Bach”. You may disagree with registration, phrasing, tempo etc. That’s okay, but I LUV IT!!!! Think objectively for a moment and consider how Bach may have played his music if he had a 116 rank Ruffati at his disposal. Everyone has their interpretations of music. Here’s an example. At approx 1:47 in the Tocatta and a Fugue in D Minor on this same recording, Fox plays this little section with GUTS and heavy pedal! Seems like most every other organist uses a registration that sounds like a circus calliope in this section with no guts. To me, it should be BOMBASTIC! I have The Fox Touch I and II on vinyl and cd. If I didn’t have 2 cd’s of the same recording, I probably would have worn out the records, I adore it that much, lol.
I'm not sure how "rare" the vinyl LPs are. I have them, but then I've had them for 30 years. I dubbed and cleaned up my own copies not long ago. However, your restoration job is either better than what I was able to do, or your LPs were less "well-loved", meaning played a lot, than mine. In any case, bravo on posting this recording.
BTW I don't have any complaints about Fox's playing and never did. I think he played very expressively, and I'm sure in his own interpretation. Not sure what some of these negative commenters are on about.
Very nicely restored, a great sounding recording. Thank you for posting :)
What a colorful player...!!!
Bella e originale interpretazione del grande Virgil Fox!
well done!!
Love this!
It should be mentioned that there are a FEW SLIGHT mistakes in Virgil's performance on this recording. It should also be explained that, because only a limited number of copies could be made from each master disc, a number of master recordings had to be made, in order to make enough LPs for sale to cover the expenses incurred in the recording project as a whole. Also, a number of the master discs that resulted had to be rejected and discarded for various reasons. (One excellent take was ruined by the roar of a low-flying jet-powered helicopter. Another was rendered by an over-zealous fan who had sneaked in to the building and yelled, "GO, VIRGIL!" before the recorders could be shut down to end the session!) Ii is not overly surprising that, in an interview with Robert Sherman of WQXR, Fox himself stated that a grand total of 68 separate takes were necessary in order to produce the 16 master discs that were finally used to produce the actual vinyl LPs that were offered for sale to the public! Also, it should be remembered that Fox was suffering from prostate cancer which had metastasized into multiple myeloma (bone cancer) by this time, which made it all the more difficult for him to play at his best! Last but not least, Crystal Clear Records wound up going bankrupt shortly after the records resulting from these sessions were released! As a result, poor Virgil never received one red cent in royalties from any of these recordings, partly due to the criminal (I'm sorry, but in light of subsequent events, no softer word will do!) machinations of his then manager and publicist, Richard Torrence and Marshall Yaeger (both of whom Fox fired less than a year later!). David Snyder's recently-published biography of Mr. Fox goes into considerable detail as to their misconduct.
Fascinating!!! I didn't know these stories. What a gruelling recording process!!!!
This I think was recorded straight from organ to disc and were known as crystal clear LP recordings. Hence the exceptional recording quality. It was later that I found a CD version of this. There was some criticism by many purists at the time who believed that Bach should only be played on traditional baroque instruments. Thankfully those days have largely passed but the beauty of Bach,s music is it can be played in so many styles. But then I have heard Bach Organ Works being played on famous baroque organs by a notable organist and to me these recordings are ghastly . I would much rather prefer Virgil Fox and Ivan Sokol.
Thank you, IW, for sharing this and your work on the sound.
Years ago I played the organ in the Arboretum after the original was moved to the Crystal Cathedral. Nice organ but not livenough acoustics.
The Catholic Crutch boughthe complex. Now called Christ Cathedral?
Virgil's trill in the adagio is much too fast. Does not match. Also too many stops.
(Does anyone know if Riverside Church coated the sanctuaryvalls to make the rather dead space more live? Virgil tried to compensate for the dry room by the way he let off of the keys!)
Not sure about the walls, but they did coat the ceiling several times quite a few years ago. Although not nearly resonant enough, the room is better than when Virgil was there.
@@larikipe940 Interesting! Thank you. Hope thathey also coathe walls.
Virgil Fox design the Hazel Wright organ was the Crystal Cathedral before I went Catholic
uh? I don't follow...
@@edmardisla8492 Virgil Fox designed the organ of Crystal Cathedral named after Hazel Wright who funded it with a generous $2m donation, which was sold to the Diocese of Orange County in 2012 and it was renovated for Catholic worship and has re-opened as Christ Cathedral.
@@at0mcollision Ok, THX.
5:44 Adagio
Hi, Indexwheel, in what church on Ruffatti organ played Virgil this, and other organworks, 'Irgendwo' in California? I remember de describing ov recording on the sleeve of a 'Direct Cut' disc, but I'd forget the name&place of church
Greeting, Loek van der Heide
Fantastico, il nonno di John Carpenter!
I thought the CD The Digital Fox had the same recordings. Or was there actually another CD titled The Fox Touch?
Ozzman Osgood The Fox Touch (I and II) was a direct to disc recording on vinyl before the advent of compact disc, and what you are hearing is a selection from the same recording. This same recording session was later available on Laserlight Digital cd. The organ was a 116 rank Ruffati situated in a fairly dead acoustic. It was later moved to the Crystal Cathedral and “homogenized”with the Aeolian Skinner from the Lincoln Center, and eventually totaled 223 ranks. After several more additions, the Hazel Wright organ now boasts over 280 ranks.
The recording is very dry. The church has more reverb than this. It must be the way it was recorded.
PointyTallofSatan: the dry sound of the recording is not proessed 'post-Recording', the dry acoustic is caused by the church itself. I only did forget name of church and place where the recording took place. ( woodstrip/-planking covering of walls in the church, no plastre, no long nave, and transept & Absis, but a Reformed church.
@@loekvanderheide3361 This is the church. live.staticflickr.com/2771/4140647724_4b7e667659_b.jpg
No no and yes .... To put so many frills on Baroque is absurd. Why a 32 feet bass for the toccata? A 32-foot is not used for that, it's a heavy punctuation, not a third voice. This is not the first time I hear this use in the United States, it's useless, it looks like the organist wants to prove something by shaking the room and impress the listeners ... Virgil Fox is an excellent organist, so why do that? Why often change the registration to this wonderful long walk that is adagio? And why break the rhythm? It looks like he starts riding, then cycling, then train! What a pity ! On the other hand, the fugue, is one of the most beautiful interpretation. I know her well. Why? Because he plays it simply, without leaving the score. Bach is an accomplished music. To make it live requires rigor, discipline, with a pragmatic soul and "Lutheran" !!!! The score, everything is written on the partition !!!
It worked. I'm impressed.
Why yell though.
You would suggest there is a "standard". Virgil Fox IS the standard from which anyone and everyone can access and learn from. He sets the "standard" in every piece he plays. He uses the notes only as the blueprint. Its up to anyone that plays or uses those notes to give their own life and interpretation and meaning to those silent scribbles in black in laying on paper called notes". No one really has the right to brand any other performer's interpretations as being wrong or being the only "right" just as someone viewing an Art work masterpiece can't be accused of not interpreting its meaning correctly.
Too Fast, Bach wouldn't approve for sure!
Who cares? Some might like it, some don't. We will never know what bach might have thought of it and the beauty of music is that different playstyles and interpretations bring different colors to it.