Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544

I had originally planned to make my 2000 upload a major "Bach piece," but it really came down to "which one I could remember well enough" to do it without going through a big "re-practicing process" (which I should have done). This one, the "Great" B Minor was the one that I best recalled.

A major issue was "turning the pages!" I don't know how many of you manage the turns in major pieces, but my old, "tape the copies to the backs of Diet Coke boxes" doesn't work when there are so many pages and so few "page-turning (as in "cardboard removing") pauses!"

I tried having my wife turn, but, that just made me all the more nervous... ;-)

I eventually went with taping the pages together into "three groups" and throwing them off the music rack at the appropriate time! Not ideal, but I managed to keep it going. I think it sounds "nervous," but I did get through it.

The Hinsz/Schnitger is a wonderfully famous instrument. The acoustics are massive, and despite the fact that this is an earlier sample set, I think Milan did an excellent job with this.

One of the few "drawbacks" with this organ is that the Pedal lacks "upperwork" and coupling to a manual is almost required, which is what I did here. The outcome always seems to make the bass rather "muddy," although I have had youtube performances that sounded like a "clearer" pedal line. Perhaps it deals with "closeness" to the pipes.

Also the 16' pedal reed is big, and Milan left the slight "out-of-tuneness" as they recorded it.

I tried to play this in a "correctly-Baroque" manner, without manual changes, and limiting myself to adding only a few stops of augmentation at the conclusion of the magnificent fugue. I did NOT do one of my "English cathedral specials" on this one. :-)

I will put John Palmer's notes about the piece in the First Comment.

The score is attached below.

This is upload 1999!