This article is reprinted with the permission of the author and The Spokesman-Review.
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Organist James David Christie emphasized the “festive” element in this year’s Northwest Bach Festival. Christie performed at First Presbyterian Church Friday, demonstrating the outer limits of what the church's somewhat bland Schantz pipe organ can do.
The program included organ solos by J.S. Bach, his predecessor Dietrich Buxtehude and the son of one of Bach’s early employers, Johann Ernst, duke of Saxe-Weimar. Christie also collaborated with harpsichordist Ilton Wjuniski in concertos for two keyboards by Bach and by Bach’s student Johann Ludwig Krebs.
The organist began with Duke Johann Ernst’s Concerto for Strings in G minor, one of several of the royal composer’s concertos for strings transcribed for solo organ or harpsichord by Bach. Johann Ernst was a talented child who died at 19. Christie made the best of this short work that’s most attractive feature was its flashy, if exhaustingly jittery, finale.
Christie and Wjuniski turned Krebs’ Concerto in A minor into a surprising treat. Krebs’ job as Bach’s student included copying out parts for performances of Bach’s music. Krebs’ own work confirms the truth of Oscar Levant’s observation, “Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism.” When writing this concerto, Krebs remembered portions of his teacher’s concertos and cantatas and put them to good use.
In Krebs’ concerto and Bach’s own Concerto in C major, Christie and Wjuniski were perfectly in accord stylistically, if not always wholly synchronized rhythmically. The warmth and color of the organ complemented the “ping” and bite of the harpsichord. Christie adapted his touch to a detached style like the harpsichord, while Wjunski produced an almost organlike songfulness.
Christie’s inclusion of Buxtehude’s Praeludium in G minor demonstrated where Bach received the inspiration for his toccatas. Like a mischievous schoolboy, Christie could not resist using the organ stop called the Zimbelstern, the sound of tinkling bells, as a sparkling halo to the Praeludium’s ending.
The remainder of the recital was all Bach, and Christie showed why Bach was considered the greatest organist of his day -- of any day, perhaps. Two deeply poetic chorale preludes, “Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr” and “O Mensch, bewein’ dein Sunde gross,” were contrasted with the virtuoso brilliance of the Prelude and Fugue in G major (BWV 541) and Bach’s best-known organ work, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565).
The printed program alluded to the current dispute among Bach scholars as to whether or not the latter work is actually by Bach. Christie told me that he thinks someone else wrote this famous piece. But his playing told a different story. Christie made this brash, festive Toccata and Fugue seize you by the ear and not let go until the very end -- just like Bach.
By Travis Rivers
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