1732 Garrels organ at the Groote Kerk, Maassluis, The Netherlands

Michael Barone reviews a summer selection of recent recordings of music by and related to Johann Sebastian Bach.

It’s a game of getting-to-know-you. First a few notes, then some others and before you know it, we’re into a new adventure in sound. For hundreds of years, players have explored the limits of their instruments and of their own techniques in works that evolved from the sheer tactile pleasure of pushing down the keys and seeing what happens. Marius Monnekendam in the Netherlands, Robert Elmore in the United States, Girolamo Frescobaldi of Italy, J.S. Bach in Germany and many others have written some of their most exciting music following this scheme. Tactile and tantalizing, our program explores four hundred years of repertoire, instruments from three centuries, and the delights of things done by hand. Better than a good massage, with a tingling sensation guaranteed, we Reach out and Touch the Art of the Toccata, this week on Pipedreams.

It’s J.S. Bach, but with a difference. An entire additional voice grafted onto a simple two-part invention makes a fiendishly difficult trio, but that’s just for starters. This week, we take a step beyond our usual understanding of Bach and listen to some of his most challenging scores brought to the edge by provocative modern interpretors. We’ll hear a jazzy reworking of the Air on the G-String, a Dutch rock musician’s take on the famous Toccata, and Porter Heaps’ Swinging After Bach. From youthful virtuosity to arrangements beyond-the-pale, performers, composers and transcribers visit with the great master from Leipzig and invite him out for a real trip. Be prepared for excitement and surprise as we take Bach on the Wild Side.

Some pieces were intended for intimate living-room spaces, while others have enthralled crowds in great cathedrals. This week, we travel the world in search of seasonal treats. Christmas is coming, and we will dance and sing while listening to the Memphis Chamber Choir and a host of organ soloists from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United States, as each contribute sonic surprises of many sorts. Come along as we celebrate a Holiday International.

The Netherlands, beyond its eye-catching windmills and colorful tulips, is home to an incredible treasure of historic and modern pipe organs.

…one of the most popular and influential composer-performers of the Baroque era continues to inspire in the 21st century.

…delightful representatives of the Netherlands organ experience, with instruments and repertoire from five centuries.

…in observance of the 450th anniversary of Sweelinck’s birth, a survey of the organ art in the Netherlands.

…a review of some recent CD releases, testament to the incredible international activity or organ builders, performers, and audio producers.

…several select and sonorous scores explore the notion of ‘sacred’ from a different point of view.

…one of the most popular and influential composer-performers of the Baroque era continues to inspire in the 21st century.

…a special segment of the repertoire dedicated to the display of a performer’s skill and an instrument’s resources.

…another quarterly sampling of recent organ discs, with emphasis on the unusual and the unusually attractive. Our choices are wide-ranging, covering a variety of musical styles, performers and instruments. Domestic and imported LPs and CDs will be aired.

…another quarterly sampling of recent organ discs, with emphasis on the unusual and the unusually attractive. Our choices are wide-ranging, covering a variety of musical styles, performers and instruments. Domestic and imported LPs and CDs will be aired.

…A survey of recent recordings.

…Music of the organist Alexandre Guilmant of France.

…Works from a composer who helped define the style of 19th century French symphonic organ music.

Hardly profound but certainly sonically stimulating playthings from the organist’s bench.

Music of expectation and exhultation for the Advent season.

Superb and sublime, this master-composer’s music never fails to take the organ to its expressive limits.