Helmut Walcha
Organist Helmut Walcha was a native of Leipzig who was blinded at age 16 due to a botched vaccination against smallpox. Nevertheless, Walcha did not allow this infirmity to discourage him from pursuing his life's ambition as a church musician, and he entered the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of 19. Walcha's potential was noticed by Günther Ramin, professor of organ at the Conservatory and kapellmeister at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the very church that employed Johann Sebastian Bach from 1724 until his death in 1750. Walcha became Ramin's assistant at the Thomaskirche and made his public performance debut there in 1924. In 1929, Walcha accepted a position at the Friedenskirche at Frankfurt, where he was based the rest of his long life; in 1938, Walcha began teaching at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt, and in 1946 he moved from the Friedenskirche to the Dreikönigskirche. While he retired from teaching in 1972, Walcha continued to work as organist of the Dreikönigskirche until his public retirement in 1981.
Being blind, Helmut Walcha memorized all of the music he played, first with the help of his mother and later with his wife's assistance: he heard each individual line of music played in either hand, or from the foot pedals -- once he'd heard each part played four times through, he could re-assemble them in his head. Through this method, Walcha was able to memorize all of the organ works of Bach known in his time, which he recorded twice, for the first time toward the end of the 78 era in mono, and the second in stereo beginning in 1956. Walcha's blindness was actually an aid to his interpretations of these works as he could "see" Bach's music as consisting of individual lines of counterpoint, and Walcha focused his interpretation on making all such details clear as separate entities within Bach's general musical texture. Walcha toured extensively in Europe as an organist and frequently broadcast, but his fame spread most readily through his long association with recording firm Deutsche Grammophon, lasting from 1947 until his retirement from recording at the end of the second Bach cycle in 1971. His recording of Bach's Die Kunst die Füge from 1956, which many critics feel is definitive, was the first stereo recording made by Deutsche Grammophon.
Walcha disdained the big Romantic organs common in Europe in his time, mainly due to what he felt were their overabundant mechanisms, and he went in search of the best surviving Baroque instruments, surveying them throughout Europe. In doing so, Walcha helped set a standard for others in the appreciation and preservation of older organs, and he personally contributed to the restoration of several important instruments through playing fundraisers. Among organs he preferred were a Silbermann instrument at St. Pierre-le-Jeune in Strasbourg and the Schnitger organ at Laurenskerk in Altmaar in The Netherlands, the ones with which he made the lion's share of his recordings. Walcha also played the harpsichord and prepared an edition of George Frideric Handel's 16 organ concerti and made a realization of the unfinished fugue in Bach's Die Kunst der Füge.
© TiVo
Artisti simili
-
Johann Sebastian Bach : Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080 (Mono Version) (Mono Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 (Remastered 2022)
Classica - Pubblicato da Artemisia il 3 feb 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Remastered)
Classica - Pubblicato da Celestial Harmonies il 14 mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier, Book One & Two, BWV 846-893
Classica - Pubblicato da Archiv Produktion il 1 gen 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: The Art of the Fugue / Toccata and Fugue, Bwv 565 / Passacaglia and Fugue, Bwv 582 (Walcha) (1947, 1952, 1956) (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Classica - Pubblicato da IDIS il 1 gen 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Helmut Walcha spielt Bach (Auf der grossen Orgel der Sankt Laurenskerk in Alkmaar) (Mono Version)
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Prélude et fugue, BWV 552 - Fantasie, BWV 572 & Canzona, BWV 588 (Mono Version)
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Helmut Walcha
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 1 ago 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2: BWV 846-893 (Remastered)
Classica - Pubblicato da Celestial Harmonies il 14 mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J. S. Bach Collection, Vol. 9
Helmut Walcha, Willem Mengelberg, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Classica - Pubblicato da ArnebAudio il 27 dic 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-6
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 set 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Toccatas et fugues, BWV 538 & 564 (Mono Version)
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Das Schaffen Johann Sebastian Bachs: Serie F. Werke für Orgel (An der Schnitger-Orgel in Cappel) (Mono Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Das Schaffen Johannes Sebastian Bach: Serie F. Werke für Orgel (An der Orgel der Sankt Laurenskerk in Alkmaar) (Stereo Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Fantaisies et fugues, BWV 537, 542 & 562 (Mono Version)
Classica - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J. S. Bach collection, Vol. 10
Classica - Pubblicato da ArnebAudio il 3 gen 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Works for Organ (Stereo Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Œuvres pour orgue (Mono Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Harpsichord Partitas
Classica - Pubblicato da DOREMI il 10 apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Prelude and Fugue; Fantasia
Classica - Pubblicato da Past Classics il 1 ago 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Das Schaffen Johann Sebastian Bachs: Serie F. Werke für Orgel (An der Schnitger-Orgel in Cappel) (Mono Version)
Generi vari - Pubblicato da BNF Collection il 1 gen 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo