Two more chorale preludes by Pachelbel, recorded today.

Pachelbel - Chorale Prelude - Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (Setting 1) (1:48)
Pachelbel - Chorale Prelude - Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (Setting 2) (4:28)

This choral melody in Germany mostly is known under the title "Oh, Haupt voll Blut und Wunden". Bach has written some choral movements to it and of course, there are several texts to it, also "Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder...". I like both of your performances, it´s a pleasure to listen to these quite properly played counterpoint studies, especially the second is quite complex and artful. I think, there is a cut at 2:00, where the tempo becomes quite a lot slower, which is evident especially in a baroque piece. (In romantic pieces like our Slavonic Dances it´s not so evident, if you don´t know the piece exactly. )
Bravo und thank you for sharing these little gems!

Yes, I noticed that during postprocessing. Had to repeat that part quite some times, with its tricky pedal sequence. The tempo drop annoys me hugely, and I will have to redo it for that reason. Or, use Amazing Slowdowner to speed up that passage
Thanks for the feedback. Pachelbel's music may not be so interesting to most people, but I rather like it.

Re-recorded no.2 today without the annoying tempo difference, and altogether more stable.
Pachelbel - Chorale Prelude - Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (Setting 2) (4:28)

This is a very good performance, Chris. The tempo is eve now and it´s just the right one for these wonderful counterpoint studies. I like them very much, I like Renaissance and also early baroque music generally very much. (I only noticed some little background noises here and there. May be there were other people in the church? But that doesn´t matter, because musically it´s a splendid recording.)

Thanks for that Andreas ! The noises are my noisy pedals. Some of them have no longer any felt on top so they they clash against bare wood when you release them. I hop they'll be remedying that soon. Maybe I ought to do it myself.

Hi Chris,

I listened to both pieces and enjoyed hearing them. Very nice recordings.

On the spurious noises, at least it wasn't the pigeon waiting to koo on your last chord!

Anyway I would bet that someone who repairs organs would make very short work indeed of replacing the worn felts on those foot pedals. But probably "It's not in the budget."

David

Thanks David !


Gosh, you remember that ! Boy was I pissed with that damn bird. Can't stand pigeons anyway.


I'll nag them about it big time, though

Hello Chris, nothing seems to capture the grandeur of Baroque organ music. These are wonderfully played, and sound very fluid in execution. As legato as the Choral is, you maintain the clarity of your passages. I am sure this would sound totally different if one were to play it on the piano. Well, spurious, fan, switching noises are part of organ music.
I hope you had a great summer?... I've had a busy summer, and now that it's over, I hope to be on PS more often. I miss my musical colleagues here on PS!

Thanks George. You seem to like this repertoire as much as I do. The North German baroque organ school, especially chorale-based works, inspire me mightily even though I'm not of a religious disposition. Bach's shadow looms large of course but there are so many others who created magnificent music too. Even the much-maligned and type-casted Pachelbel, a composer whom Bach genuinely admired. For me this is really a golden era of music. Everybody I talk to about playing organ is always nonplussed that I have no wish to play Widor, Guilmant, Franck, Messiaen, etc... For some reason, on organ I don't seem to need anything else than Bach and friends. Nice to find at least one fellow fan here.

Great summer, huh..... July was probably the hottest in history, and august likely the wettest and coldest. And then came autumn