We are thrilled to announce that we have a venue and dates
for completing our Bach recording project! Our project has been on hold for a year and a half while we
sought the right instrument with which to record the early versions of the
sonatas in F minor and G major for violin and obbligato keyboard, BWV 1018 and
1019—which we believe, for a variety of reasons, were originally intended for
performance with organ. At last we
can say that during May 26–28, God willing, we will record these sonatas, as
well as possibly the Fugue in G minor, BWV 1026, with the organ at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Houston.
Fritz Noack’s Opus 128 is designed
and built in the style of Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688–1757), an organ builder
with whose work Bach himself was familiar. Hildebrandt was also a student of Gottfried Silbermann, the
builder of an organ in Dresden that Bach inaugurated with a famous recital in
1725. When Chappy traveled to
Houston in early March to “audition” this instrument, he found that the organ
was rich in tonal possibilities that would suit the music.
