Amazing!!! The entire human life in just 14 minutes. And only Bach could do this.

the distorted analogue sound makes this even better

P.S anyone else think it is criminal that this majestic instrument is sitting silent in a museum now? (Metropolitan NYC)

@radialistarenatoaffonso

3 жыл бұрын

It's really a crime!

@WolfieNamira

3 жыл бұрын

YES

@GlamRockCowboy

3 жыл бұрын

The one at the Met was built for someone else. The whereabouts of Mr. Biggs's instrument are unknown.

@LaFlaneuse0

3 жыл бұрын

@@GlamRockCowboy The search begins

@menialharpsichordist553

3 жыл бұрын

it really is

Back in 1968, I used to place myself between my stereo speakers and blow this album, and equipment, to the moon. NOTHING, regardless of idiom, could rival, could even begin to approach one of the truest interpretations of one of the greatest minds to ever occupy human form, JSBach. Obsessive compulsive in the most productive fashion, giving of himself so that we, so far from his era, could still gain so much inspiration from tones arranged by genius. Thank you for posting.

@christinericart4554

7 жыл бұрын

I completely agree!! This music has been a thread throughout my life. It is in my blood!

@jesuisravi

4 жыл бұрын

I can relate. I used to listen to this recording every day for years back in the 80's. Nothing can whack you like JSB in combination with EPB.

@beasheerhan4482

4 жыл бұрын

Excellent report, Dear Jim - and I see no reason to not continue, 'blowing yourself to the moon', with this recording!

this is dangerously good if there’s such a thing

Nice prominent highs and bass tones. Rhythm flowing perfectly smooth and entrancing as J.S. Bach intended. Sounds not over produced. Natural.

The cadenza (which does not appear in the "original") from 13:24 to 13:39 is pure genius. I don't know if it was improvised during the session or was written out beforehand. Either way, it is some of the greatest keyboard playing that I have ever heard. Bach himself would approve.

@GlamRockCowboy

3 жыл бұрын

Mr. Biggs himself wrote in his liner notes that the cadenza was based on suggestions by John Challis, who was himself an extremely proficient performer as well as builder. Mr. Biggs also improvised a cadenza for the Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541, also based on John Challis's suggestions. He would later go on to includes these same cadenzas in these same two works when me recorded tham at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig ca. 1973.

@kansasthunderman1

3 жыл бұрын

@@GlamRockCowboy The same cadenza is also played on "Biggs Plays Bach In The Thomaskirche": kzread.info/dash/bejne/eG2uksWpm9C-nLw.html

This is very beautiful. The harpsichord gives a very different taste to BWV 582. And this "bad recorded harpsichord" sound gives a very different taste too; like a darker, deeper feeling, which I love.

@gamers7800

5 жыл бұрын

Can't say I agree with your view on this. One of Bach's organ masterpieces transpire to harpsichord. On organ its mind blowing, with the right organist that is .Wondering how the master would feel about the downgrade...oh well.

@phsc7

5 жыл бұрын

Ever listened to Stokowski's orchestral version?

@paulcaswell2813

5 жыл бұрын

Bach would have probably first heard it on such an instrument. Remember that in Bach's day one couldn't just 'switch on' the organ - people had to be employed to pump the bellows. Even as late as St Sulpice, Paris (1862) and probably later, manual blowing was the only way. Pedal harpsichords and clavichords were the standard organists' practice instruments.

@christianknuchel

5 жыл бұрын

​@@gamers7800 The master was very interested in various instruments. I sincerely doubt he'd be so narrow minded as to discount this absolutely sublime interpretation just because it's not of the epic organ kind.

@austossen

5 жыл бұрын

i agree

too beautiful everything, the music, the performance, the instrument

I thought not possible to hear M. E. Power Biggs again. Thank you so much for posting this incredible and magnificant piece of Bach payed by this great man. We would be grateful to find something on CD from him, sure ! Merci infiniment.

Greetings from "Team Virgil Fox" - and a big thank you for posting this album, which was never released on CD.

BWV 582 is my favorite, and I think it's really a good idea of changing rhythm of some parts, fitting the sounds of harpsichord.

One of my favorites pieces. I bought this record when I was 15 years old. Still have it. I love that pedal Harpsichord an impressive instrument with a marvellous sound. I wish that someone record Father Antonio Soler's "Fandango" on it. Rafael Puyana did recorded on a pedal Harpsichord and it's a incredible performance.

I have two of his organ recordings playing Bach's Organ Works. I am stunned by E Power Biggs' harpsichord playing. Another recording yet to track down.

One of the first classical pieces I ever heard on Organ. 30 years later and it is still one of my favorite pieces. The harpsichord gives it a beautiful new voice. There is also an eloquence in the unique playing style that is in this work of E. Power Biggs. Bravo.

Plucked instruments like the harpsichord and the koto have a unique sound trajectory that I LOVE. I wish more would be done with them in transcriptions.

A really impressive instrument! 🎹🎵🎼🎶

biggs playing pedal harpsichord is the pleasure i didn’t know i needed.

To this day, this has remained my favourite harpsichord interpretation of this piece, if not my favourite of all of them, including the organ ones, and one of my favourite harpsichord interpretations of anything, ever. The playing is perfect, the instrument singular. E. Power Biggs and his pedal harpsichord performances are something else.

i had his performance of the trio sonatas on pedal harpsichord. i always felt that was the best way of hearing them.

I had that album and it vanished. So wonderful to hear a selection from it tonight during a thunderstorm.

I am 60 years so, so I have listened to Biggs's recordings since the late 1960s. What I've always appreciated about his work was the precision of his playing combined with warmth. He wasn't all technique without passion. He was able to combine mechanical brilliance with fire, and the result was recorded music that, while possibly equalled (I'm thinking of Cameron Carpenter), has not yet been surpassed. Additionally, he brought serious keyboard music to the masses.

@stevewheaton9837

3 ай бұрын

I felt the same way about Wanda Landowska. The technque was there, but with passion. Some thought too much passion, but I always loved the drama.

Magic .

I always wind up rolling back at 13:23 and listening to the Sforzando over and over.

@EliotKiti

4 жыл бұрын

I do the same! Brilliant making it, Bach would be impressed.

What a fabulous instrument. Challis considered this his masterpiece. I have to agree. So sad it is no incarcerated in the museum at Harvard University. Challis would have hated the idea.

As I recall, this is the first time I have heard a pedal harpsichord. Brilliant! When I was young, I planned to play the Bach Passacaglia on a reproducing organ, so it could be played at my memorial service. However, I just cannot perform this heavenly music up to the standard that Bach deserves. Surely one of the greatest compositions ever!

Wow, what a ride THAT was.

this piece SLAPS

pedal Harpsichord its amazing instrument!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!!!

I always enjoy Biggs. I agree with many that, his interpretations stand the test of time. I am strictly a layman, so I lack the ability to be a critic. However, the fact that these recordings are still on KZread, tells it all. It is most unfortunate that Biggs did not have any visual recordings. This recording is in my collection. William Stead

Many thanks for this. One of my favorite albums as a youth, it was one of the few albums I took with me when I moved from the US to Japan. Unfortunately, my record player broke long ago, and so it is like a homecoming to hear Biggs' pedal harpsichord once again! Love the intimate crispness with which the counterpoint is emphasized, the fact that the tones die out instead of prolonging indefinitely as on the organ (Stravinsky famously disfavored the "monster that never breathes").

This rendition "stomps" all other versions.

@EliotKiti

4 жыл бұрын

Nice

The best sounding and performance of this work on the pedal harp. in all KZread...and I have listened to most so far.

@EliotKiti

3 жыл бұрын

I think its the best performance of this piece ever... he did exactly what bach wanted - to manipulate the piece so that it fits your own perception. Biggs interpretation just brings the piece to life in my opinion!

Incredible way to hear the piece. It manages to be both absolutely delicate (given it is missing much of the resonating tones that an organ can achieve) and yet still has a feeling of grandeur to it. Strange way to approach the piece, but it gives some real flexibility to play with the passacaglia. Absolutely fantastic.

Having been a good friend of Mr. Challis and having the joy of playing this instrument before Mr. Bigg's "refinement", it was and still is Mr.Challiis's masterpiece. I could cry to hear that this world c;lass instrument is incarcerated in a museum at Harvard. What a terrible waste! This instrument has such a great sound with no apologies! If you expect a "quiet" sound from a harpsichord...you will be disappointed. This instrument has command! I own a smaller 7 foot instrument and it can..."rattle the windows"...as it were. John Challis built it for me and 45 years later, it still gets attention whenever it is played.

@generalackbar245

5 жыл бұрын

Ending up in a museum is the worst punishment for a musical instrument. I can't help but think to Stradivarius masterpieces that have been silenced, when their only purpose is to spend their lives singing.

@christianknuchel

5 жыл бұрын

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and Mr. Challis for facilitating the existence of this instrument. Now, please forgive my ignorance, but whatever alterations Biggs might be responsible for, I find the recordings that he was a part of producing on that very instrument to be a gift to humanity I wouldn't want missing.

My father worked for Columbia. Mr. Biggs invited us to his home where he had a harpsichord and he played it too! I was a youngster but I will never forget it. Columbia was recording Mr. Biggs on organ in a church near Harvard at the time?? I have never been able to find that recording. I believe it was around 1970. Does Harvard Square, Cambridge church sound familiar to anyone?

@tenney1119

4 жыл бұрын

Probably the Flentrop organ-Fabulously colorful organ!

@GlamRockCowboy

3 жыл бұрын

He might have been recording his album for the Bicentennial, which included a performance of the Ives Variations on "America." That work was recorded in the Harvard Memorial Church, and was one of the last recordings he made prior to his tragic death in 1977, just a few weeks before what would have been his 71st birthday.

@egay86292

5 ай бұрын

I was born across the street.

What a masterpiece

The true master of Baroque music. Always encouraging the traditional while entertaining experimentation and progress. Some have the gall to call this man "too traditionalist". But playing the music as it was written is important.It lets the listener appreciate the composers vision. Biggs was not against the modern vision, in fact he embraced it. But when I want to listen to these great compositions as they were meant to be performed, I go to Biggs first and foremost. His playing was accurate. yet he left his mark on all of his performances, you can tell it's a Biggs performance, the man was a gift to the musical community.

I love the sound of the harpsichord!

Wow. Brilliant. Stunning.

I'm speechless. Never knew Biggs recorded this. Simply magnificent. Thank you for posting!

I love that you can hear the action of the footpedals. This is performed on a machine and it has such life.

what perfect background music for the 2020s.

This guy is a genius, this is really amazing...

@Canardeur

5 жыл бұрын

Who? The harpsichordist or the composer? Because in front of such a beautiful masterpiece that is been being beautifully interpreted, your statement is ambiguous and thus my question legitimate.

@EliotKiti

3 жыл бұрын

@@Canardeur both are

@canardeur8390

3 жыл бұрын

@@EliotKiti Agree.

Couldn't agree more. The clarity and articulation is a joy.

Thank you for posting my favourite version of this piece on the pedal harpsichord. I've been trying to get the BBC to play this on Radio 3 for ages but they've ignored me. I was about to write to CBS and ask then for permission to post it onto KZread but you beat me to it!

@markne4854

5 жыл бұрын

I despair of Radio 3, just about every time they play any Bach work for harpsichord, it's a piano performance, so yes I fear your chances of getting them to play something as 'exotic' as this are not too good. Are Radio 3 trying to emulate 'Classic FM' perhaps?

i’m back listening to this again and again. i don’t often “covet” the things of this world….but this…..i must have this LP in VG condition and hold the jacket in my arms while listening and watching it spin on my turntable….. this is possibly the best music.

the sound of the harpsichord is like sitting in a time machine - marvelous performance, thanks for sharing

I had this on record album a thousand years ago. Yes, those plastic disks with grooves in them for those of you old enough to know what I'm talking about. T&F in D minor was on it too. Personally I like Toccata and Fugue D minor better on the harpsichord.

What a beautiful fugue

Capolavoro assoluto con qualunque strumento venga suonato. Questa pregevole esecuzione.

I believe the pedal harpsichord is how Bach himself would play and compose when he wasn't on the organ. So this recording is probably very close to how it would have sounded when Bach was practicing and writing at home.

in a word: WOW!

@dsCheibli

6 жыл бұрын

exactly ;)

Bach was such a genius that this sounds great on all instruments. I heard a guitar version that was fantastic.

@egay86292

5 ай бұрын

simply fabulous on an accordion.

I first heard this for a class at O.U. called "Understanding Music." This song has haunted me ever since. It is easily my favorite piece of classical music. Just struck me tonight to search for it on KZread. I believe this is the same recording (from an old vinyl album) that I still have on cassette from that course (1990-91 freshman year).

This sounds so dark. I was told by a friend to check this out. It appears it was well worth it.

@user-yz2iw3ti9k

7 жыл бұрын

Christopher Hitchens It's necessary to categorize. There's the darkness of evil, darkness of non-light, and the darkness of sorrow and of thus wanting to be alone and contemplate.

@manuelkatarino

6 жыл бұрын

Please check Anthony Newman's interpretation, the other side of the darkest side! Full of light and emotion!

@mattbod

6 жыл бұрын

The sombre darkness of the Passacaglia flourished into a bright ,brilliant fugue: it doesn't get any better than this.

Magnificent music and performance.

amazing

This is the instrument that I played before Biggs took command. John Challis was a dear and valued friend. Some of the previous photos show a much truncated instrument.

@contactarlo

6 жыл бұрын

Could you please illustrate us with the history of the instrument? I heard it has an aluminium soundboard!

I had it on vinyl and sold it. Big mistake. Heard through sizeable speakers on a wretched cloudy and rainy afternoon, cold as ice outdoors; sets the mood.

@julianabrown8283

7 жыл бұрын

Same, right now.

@alexanderweibel-valls9379

6 жыл бұрын

I used to do the same with the Biggs- Scott Joplin Ragtime LP played on the same instrument!

@krazikofiman

6 жыл бұрын

AR 3a's from an AR amp and turntable and B&O cartridge. All gone now, but headphones and digital gets me in that sweet spot.

@Kates-dead-goon

5 жыл бұрын

Klipsch Fortes, a pair of Heathkit AA121s( a total of 8 EL34 power tubes) in monoblock mode, linn Kairn preamp, revolver turntable with a Linn tone arm and grado gold cartridge is what this gets played through.

@OHAApple

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it absolutley does. i am listening to it right now. It's a full moon, cold january Dutch friday evening, girlfriend 's away. Just me and a bottle of wine. Good evening Mr. Bach!

Oh mi dios... Se me caen las lagrimas... La passacaglia a su exponente timbrico mas excelso.

Apparently, the manuscript of BWV 582 was headed 'Cembalo e pedale' indicating it was to be played on a pedal harpsichord.

@nixboaski

5 жыл бұрын

Really? I think the beginning works so much better on organ, it's more strong, the pedals of the organ give so much energy and it doesn't happen in the same way in this version. But it is also great in the harpsichord, specially the fugue. So beautiful.

@syourke3

5 жыл бұрын

That’s very interesting! I’ve only heard it played on the organ. Does it work on piano?

@HBSuccess

4 жыл бұрын

Hyoseon Lee that is absolutely true! It was written for this instrument and all the pipe organ versions are the adaptations!

@jimbo2629

4 жыл бұрын

It was written for a harpsichord with a pedal, but the tone would have been different from this modern instrument

Passaglagia ,no las apreciaba antes ,pero es bella 🌟🙏🌹

I'm pretty sure I've got this disc - it would have been one of the first LP's I bought back in the late '60's.

You're welcome! I'm glad the vinyl was still in fairly good shape - as I have yet to see this on CD!

Thank you, Brtherjohn I bought the record over 50 years ago. so amazing. wonderful that you've preserved this masterpiece all to enjoy!

@brtherjohn

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for listening

Tears. Fire. Fulliness. Great. Small. Whole. Thank you.

This is amazing. There are no words that really can describe this music!

Thanks

Un instrumento sin filtros digitales ni retoque de postproducción , sonido excepcional. Una joya de youtube. Para melomanos que escuchamos estas rarezas de internet. Gracias por compartir, para que podamos disfrutarlo.

Beautiful.

Bach had daily access to full-size organs during most of his career. A guy with his caliber of mind could probably envision and notate quite a bit without the aid of an instrument anyway. Score another one for youtube! This gives another very nice glimpse into Biggs's hard to find material.

@jmb4969

3 жыл бұрын

One reason for this instrument is to allow the organist to practice at home on cold nights when the church is as cold as ice. But of course the sound is out of this world.

@youtuuba

2 жыл бұрын

Nick du Plessis, certainly Bach had access to organs, but normally just to the organ in the church where he was currently employed, and only when needed for rehearsal with the choirs, etc; and/or during church services. In Bach's own lifetime, he did not have the level of fame and respect he has these days. Peruse the many letters and other historical documents that illustrate the kinds of problems he had with his church employers, and you can start to imagine how much cooperation he would have had from the church fathers if he had requested unlimited access to the organ, which would entail the church (or probably Bach himself, out of his own meager salary) paying a couple men to pump the organ bellows every time he wanted to sit down to practice organ or do some composing from the keyboard. And pipe organs work badly when subjected to wide temperature swings. There is a whole conundrum about how churches and their organs dealt with church temperature and organ operation and intonation. None of that would have made it any easier to just pop in to practice organ playing at any old time, especially in the winter.

A big thank you for uploading this!

Bach ist der Grösste und mit diesem Instrument unschlagbar ! Liebe Grüsse aus Norddeutschland !

Stunning

I LOVE BIGGS. I have this LP. Thank you for sharing!

...I bought that album ca 1969 or '70 and still have it despite many moves (NJ to FL in '79 and about a dozen since that)

@brtherjohn

2 жыл бұрын

And still not available digitally that I am aware of...

@davidedmunds9345

14 күн бұрын

@@brtherjohn

Yes. I do. Every respected concerthall must have one.

My respects. Actual baroque ornamentation. Thank you Mr. biggs

Holy cow! Thanks for the Anthony Newman recommendation. It's a fabulous performance - fast and furious!

…meraviglioso e commovente… Splendido

Una bella rareza!

Muchas gracias!

love this!

Can you imagine? Bach had one of these and he could play like this! His wives heard this kind of music making in their HOME every night! It must have been an amazing experience.

@egay86292

5 ай бұрын

Bach: Good meatballs, Honey. Shut the door if I'm too loud.

@ObscureAuteur -- good point. Getting students or whoever to run the air pumps for practice situations at may have been just another chore for the heavily booked Bach of Leipzig.

that 15 second fioritura near the end felt more powerful than 15 years of daily therapy and antidepressants

Absolutely beautiful! :-)

thank you so much

Bach alone was the genius. EPB and others like him - Landowska, Kirkpatrick and Marlowe for example, were the enlightened performers.

It's believed Bach originally composed this for the pedal harpsichord, but then later adapted to the organ

@javierdiazsantana

3 жыл бұрын

The pedal harpsichord is not a common instrument and actually is meant to be used for practicing organ technique at home, this was originally composed for organ without any doubt as the manuscript does indicate "Con pedale pro Organo pleno", with pedal for full organ

@incription

3 жыл бұрын

@@javierdiazsantana I thought it says "Cembalo e pedale"

@javierdiazsantana

3 жыл бұрын

@@incription Really? Let me check, an apology if i am mistaken.

@javierdiazsantana

3 жыл бұрын

@@incription Hey there once again. The manuscript i saw of the piece says "Passacaglia con Pedale pro Organo Pleno", i guess that you know another manuscript?

@incription

3 жыл бұрын

@@javierdiazsantana I'm not sure, someone else mentioned it, so it was probably wrong. Either way, it sounds great on both instruments !

Bro, advertising in the middle of the pasacaglia, it's the last time I see your channel

Just glorious, words fail me

8:48 you did it again Herr Bach. All that, and you still had to take out your own garbage!!

This also reminds me of Ransom Wilson and the Tokyo New Koto Ensemble doing Vivaldi - which I had on cassette tape but never found on CD... this NEEDS to be on CD and MP3.

Absolutely monumental.

Back in the 1970s I bought the DG Archive recording of this on the organ. Das Alte Werke. The opening bars are so atmospheric. This is a bit lost with the harpsichord and the harpsichord does not sustain, but this recording is still wonderful with a resonant base. Bach sounds good on all sorts of instruments. I can play the first few bars nearly as well. After that it goes pear shaped!

the best...

… meraviglioso e commovente…

This rendition of BWV 582 is my next favorite, a very close second only to his rendition of the Flentrop organ in the Busch Museum at Harvard, I never tire of counting the variations. What amazing recoding quality from the age of vinyl.