Played by Carl Weinrich on the organ in Vårfrukyrka (Our Lady’s Church) in the city of Skännige, 180 miles south of Stockholm. Weinrich had a rhythmic sense, and a sense of the harmonic rhythm of a phrase [and of whole sections], that is unsurpassed by any organist to whom I have ever listened. And something wonderful happened to the man when he sat down at that particular organ in Skännige, Sweden.
The first classical LP I ever bought was Carl Weinrich playing T&F in D Minor BWV565 plus Prelude & Fugue In A minor BWV543, Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor BWV582 and Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV533, all recorded, according to the sleeve, on the organ of the Vårfrukyrkan in Skänninge, Sweden. It was issued in the UK on “Music for Pleasure”, MFP211 (1967), which was a cheap sub-label at the time of EMI. I bought it in Woolworths! Incredible to think that in 1973 in an industrial town in the North East of England one could buy classical LPs in a branch of Woolworths, albeit of the cheap ‘n cheerful kind! The other source of classical music in that town was a branch of W H Smiths, a nationwide stationery retailer that still exists in the UK. I bought several LPs there in my teens, after buying my second classical LP in Woolworth’s, Beethoven’s 5th symphony, on some other budget label, I think recorded by Georg Szell (or someone else) and the Boston SO. Sadly I sold most of my LPs some 5 years ago, but I kept some of my earliest and favourite purchases for nostalgia reasons, the Weinrich being one of them. There was no Internet in those days of course, and I had never heard of Carl Weinrich. But his sounded like wonderful performances to me, although I had nothing to compare them with. The LP sleeve notes said that CW was a distinguished American organist and Director of Chapel Music at Princeton Univeristy, who had recorded “the entire organ works of Bach at Skänninge, a hundred miles south-west of Stockholm”. Why, I thought, would CW go all the way to an obscure town in Sweden to record all the organ works of J S Bach. A year or so later, in 1975, when I bought the first ever edition of the wonderful “Penguin Stereo Record Guide”, I was a little disappointed to find that Carl Weinrich was not even mentioned. For Bach organ music it was all Lionel Rogg, Helmut Walcha, Michel Chapuis, Karl Richter, Peter Hurford and other well known organists. I later acquired many more LPs and CDs of Bach organ music, by several of the above famous organists and others, but none of them outshone Weinrich in the works I had on my old MFP LP, certainly not in BWV565. It was only years later, that I read on Wikipedia that CW had indeed recorded (what was possibly considered at the time as) all of the Bach organ music: “In 1951, Weinrich was signed by the MGM Recordslabel to record a multi-volume series of LPscomprising all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ compositions.[12] While MGM did begin this series, recording Weinrich at Princeton Chapel in New Jersey, they only recorded and released a small sampling of Bach's organ works. However, several years later, Weinrich began the process of recording Bach's complete organ works for Westminster Records, this time on Vårfrukyrka church's organ in Skänninge, Sweden. The recordings completed in 1956[13] and were released over several years; they included most of Bach's published works for organ, including the major chorale collections and free works. Later LP volumes appeared on Westminster's successor label Music Guild/ABC.” As someone else has said here, would be nice to see Weinrich’s Bach available for streaming. There is of course huge competition in recordings of these works. But I think CW’s do pretty well. The cover art on the MFP always fascinated me, but I believe it is simply some stock image as the organ that CW played on my LP looks nothing like the one in the album cover, which was I suppose classic MFP style of its day.
My first purchase of a Carl Weinrich LP was also the one with the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565, the Toccata and Fugue in F Major BWV 540, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BWV 582, and the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major BWV 564. I still have that Westminster LP in very good shape. I transferred it to CD some time ago. I also have the 2-LP set on Westminster of the 6 Trio Sonatas. Just fabulous!! Carl Weinrich and that Swedish organ were a heaven made combination.
Carl Weinrich è, secondo me, il miglior interprete che Bach abbia mai avuto. Le sue sono le più belle versioni di sempre: appassionate, vive ed intime.
Played by Carl Weinrich on the organ in Vårfrukyrka (Our Lady’s Church) in the city of Skännige, 180 miles south of Stockholm. Weinrich had a rhythmic sense, and a sense of the harmonic rhythm of a phrase [and of whole sections], that is unsurpassed by any organist to whom I have ever listened. And something wonderful happened to the man when he sat down at that particular organ in Skännige, Sweden.
Wow that was out of this world 😮
The first classical LP I ever bought was Carl Weinrich playing T&F in D Minor BWV565 plus Prelude & Fugue In A minor BWV543, Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor BWV582 and Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV533, all recorded, according to the sleeve, on the organ of the Vårfrukyrkan in Skänninge, Sweden. It was issued in the UK on “Music for Pleasure”, MFP211 (1967), which was a cheap sub-label at the time of EMI. I bought it in Woolworths! Incredible to think that in 1973 in an industrial town in the North East of England one could buy classical LPs in a branch of Woolworths, albeit of the cheap ‘n cheerful kind! The other source of classical music in that town was a branch of W H Smiths, a nationwide stationery retailer that still exists in the UK. I bought several LPs there in my teens, after buying my second classical LP in Woolworth’s, Beethoven’s 5th symphony, on some other budget label, I think recorded by Georg Szell (or someone else) and the Boston SO. Sadly I sold most of my LPs some 5 years ago, but I kept some of my earliest and favourite purchases for nostalgia reasons, the Weinrich being one of them. There was no Internet in those days of course, and I had never heard of Carl Weinrich. But his sounded like wonderful performances to me, although I had nothing to compare them with. The LP sleeve notes said that CW was a distinguished American organist and Director of Chapel Music at Princeton Univeristy, who had recorded “the entire organ works of Bach at Skänninge, a hundred miles south-west of Stockholm”. Why, I thought, would CW go all the way to an obscure town in Sweden to record all the organ works of J S Bach. A year or so later, in 1975, when I bought the first ever edition of the wonderful “Penguin Stereo Record Guide”, I was a little disappointed to find that Carl Weinrich was not even mentioned. For Bach organ music it was all Lionel Rogg, Helmut Walcha, Michel Chapuis, Karl Richter, Peter Hurford and other well known organists. I later acquired many more LPs and CDs of Bach organ music, by several of the above famous organists and others, but none of them outshone Weinrich in the works I had on my old MFP LP, certainly not in BWV565. It was only years later, that I read on Wikipedia that CW had indeed recorded (what was possibly considered at the time as) all of the Bach organ music:
“In 1951, Weinrich was signed by the MGM Recordslabel to record a multi-volume series of LPscomprising all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ compositions.[12] While MGM did begin this series, recording Weinrich at Princeton Chapel in New Jersey, they only recorded and released a small sampling of Bach's organ works. However, several years later, Weinrich began the process of recording Bach's complete organ works for Westminster Records, this time on Vårfrukyrka church's organ in Skänninge, Sweden. The recordings completed in 1956[13] and were released over several years; they included most of Bach's published works for organ, including the major chorale collections and free works. Later LP volumes appeared on Westminster's successor label Music Guild/ABC.” As someone else has said here, would be nice to see Weinrich’s Bach available for streaming. There is of course huge competition in recordings of these works. But I think CW’s do pretty well.
The cover art on the MFP always fascinated me, but I believe it is simply some stock image as the organ that CW played on my LP looks nothing like the one in the album cover, which was I suppose classic MFP style of its day.
My first purchase of a Carl Weinrich LP was also the one with the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565, the Toccata and Fugue in F Major BWV 540, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BWV 582, and the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major BWV 564. I still have that Westminster LP in very good shape. I transferred it to CD some time ago. I also have the 2-LP set on Westminster of the 6 Trio Sonatas. Just fabulous!! Carl Weinrich and that Swedish organ were a heaven made combination.
Carl Weinrich è, secondo me, il miglior interprete che Bach abbia mai avuto. Le sue sono le più belle versioni di sempre: appassionate, vive ed intime.
I could not possibly agree more.