JS BACH:EIGHT SHORT PRELUDES AND FUGUES AND OTHER ATTRIBUTIONS Eight Short Preludes and Fugues (BWVs 553-560); Fifteen Chorale Preludes; Fugue in G major (BWV 581); Partita Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr' (BWV 771) Christopher Herrick - Metzler Organ of Pfarrkirche St Michael, Kaisten, Switzerland Hyperion Records, CDA 67263 Full Price

With the year 2000 marking the 250th anniversary of JS Bach's death, a number of intégrale recordings have been released onto the market of which Hyperion's 13-CD set, released individually over the last few years, is only one. Thus, a seemingly unlimited choice allows listeners to compare a number of differing approaches: if one prefers Teutonic exactitude, the recent re-release of Helmut Walcha's recordings on Archiv, made between 1959 and 1977, might suffice; Simon Preston's long-standing project, released by DG as a box set this year, provides another, markedly different approach. His is rhythmically precise, though a somewhat over-used detaché touch is not to everyone's taste. Only Herrick and Kevin Bowyer seem to have visited the Old Spuriosity Shop, Bowyer throughout his (as yet) incomplete cycle for Nimbus, in which he is attempting to record just about everything written by, or attributed to Bach, and Herrick, whose choices seem to be slightly less expansive.

Recorded on the Metzler organ of Pfarrkirche St Michael, in Kaisten, Switzerland, Herrick provides an interesting and well-constructed programme that mixes the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues with a series of shorter, mostly chorale-based works. One might question the choice of instrument for these performances, since, despite being a fine instrument, many fine examples of early organs are extant: Rogg, for example, in his intégrale recordings for Harmonia Mundi uses the Silbermann organ of Arlesheim.

The Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, thought to be by Bach's pupil Krebs (although no mention of this important fact appears in Stephen Westrop's insert notes), are remarkable miniatures that are amongst the first pieces approached by student organists cutting their teeth for the first time on Baroque music. Here we find a gamut of styles, from the stylus phantasticus to pastoral preludes and fugues, and, despite questions of authorship, they remain excellent miniatures that, sadly, are rarely recorded.

Alongside these are fifteen organ chorales, the partita Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr' and the G major fugue, BWV 771. The authorship of each is spurious; if Bach was their author, they must have been early compositions since their compositional competence is certainly not that of the Weimar or Leipzig Bach. However, that they display a wide variety of styles, none of which Bach used until much later in his life, makes his authorship questionable. Westrop suggests that Bach could have been involved in their composition in some way or another, but a more likely scenario is that, being Bachian in their outlook, they were attributed to him at a time when Bach scholarship was still relatively undeveloped. In any case, they make for interesting listening in a very well constructed programme: the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues are interspersed with the organ chorales in a manner in which keys are related, thus affording the listener the opportunity to listen to the CD as a concert programme.

Herrick's playing is assured, although at times there are some rhythmic discrepancies that cannot be put down to affectation or interpretation. In particular these occur in the preludes and fugues, where a slightly too fast tempo for such a resonant building leaves one with a distinct feeling that the performance is insecure. To counteract this, however, the organ chorales, especially the quieter ones, are performed with a sensitivity that is rarely seen in modern performances of Baroque music. I would question Herrick's approach to ornamentation, which often seems to be additional to, rather than a part of, the melodic line: the general principles of such authors as François Couperin require ornaments to grow out of a melodic line. There is no reason to think that it should be different in Germany since the mistreatment of ornamentation runs counter to le bon gout, an important principle that was commonly referred to throughout Europe.

For the most part Herrick provides excellent forward momentum through carefully articulated phrasing. Occasionally, an over-use of legato, as in the arpeggiated sections of the fifth prelude, is inappropriate: again, he has failed to judge the resonance of the building and the voicing of the organ.

Overall, this disc is well presented and excellently engineered; as a record of rarely-heard 'Bach', it is a welcome addition to any Baroque lover's collection.

John Woodford