There is obviously a great deal musically to talk about here, but the unusual formatting of this album requires explaining the technical details first. I recall in the 1980s a 2 CD album which contained all the piano music by a noted East European composer – though he wrote quite a bit. The secret was that the first quarter of the program was only on the left channel of the first disc, with the second quarter on the right channel. You had to use your balance control turning all the way left or right, or disconnect the output you didn’t want.
BIS has come up with a far better system for cramming a great deal of music on a few discs to cut expenses. These excellent recordings of the entire organ literature of Bach were recorded by BIS in 44.1K/16-bit PCM audio in 1983 thru 1989, with a few more done in 1999. They were released on 18 discs total. The Swedish label transferred all the original PCM recordings to stereo DSD format. (So the set really doesn’t belong in this section, but since a SACD player is required to hear it, I’m placing it here.) The multichannel layer on SACDs takes a great deal of storage space, and when it isn’t used, the stereo SACD layer can be increased to hold far more than the standard limit of 80 minutes. Thus Disc 1 of this boxed set runs 250 minutes and there are 86 tracks! But although the resolution is not SACD quality, you do require an SACD or universal player to play the set – there is no CD layer. There probably could have been, but it would have been limited to the normal 80 minutes on each disc.
The advantages of this unconventional approach would appeal to anyone who has an SACD player and wants to have Bach’s complete organ literature. The disadvantages of not being DSD fidelity or playable on a standard CD player would not then be major ones. The recordings are very good quality, made on six different pipe organs which appear to all be located in either Sweden or Denmark. The series received highest recommendations from reviewers when it was first issued on CD. Fagius’ version of the famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is first rate but doesn’t have the thunderous lower bass end of many competing versions. However, the lighter sound is probably more authentically accurate to the baroque style. Some of the other Fugues, played on other organs, do approach the thunderous. The complete Art of the Fugue is of course included, as are the Orgelbüchlein and the rather austere Clavier-Übung, Part 3. The programming mixes simpler chorale variations with trio sonatas and concertos, so if you want to skip the chorales (as I usually do) you can use your player’s programming feature. Even if they make up half of the disc, you will still hear much more than 80 minutes of music! And if you have ProLogic II, you will find its simulation of the church acoustics with these recordings to be as good as many actual organ SACDs.
