Agnus Dei from Hohe Messe (BWV 232)

A few weeks ago I uploaded a recording of the transcription I made of the Agnus Dei from Bach's Hohe Messe, BWV 232 (see here: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/51308).

I wasn't entirely satisfied by this performance. The organ model I played it on, wasn't perhaps the best possible choice for the work, the registration didn't sound as good as I hoped it would, but most and for all, I thought I played it too fast.

So I decided to record it again, on another organ model and play it more slowly.

That turned out to be quite difficult to do. As counter intuitive as it may sound: playing slowly is difficult. I had a hard time keeping the pace steady and to prevent myself from slipping back in the faster tempo of the first video. I made several recordings and none of them were to my liking.

I had to resort to playing with a metronome. My old metronome doesn't work any more, but that isn't a problem. The are a lot of apps available that turn a smart phone into a metronome. And with my phone loudly ticking I played the Agnus Dei again and again, until I was more or less sure I would not again slip back into the tempo of the first recording.

So, here it is. I like this one better than the first recording. I hope you do too.

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Sonus Paradisi, of the Bader organ in the Walburgiskerk, Zutphen (https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/netherlands/zutphen-virtual-organ-model.html).

Score available here: http://partitura.org/index.php/johann-sebastian-bach-agnus-dei-hohe-messe-bwv-232