Notwithstanding the uncertainty over the origins of Bach's Trio Sonatas for organ (and Peter Williams discusses this in his typically detailed and thought-provoking sleeve-note) they are among the most musically and technically demanding pieces in the instrument's repertoire. Once having mastered these any organist can feel that he's cut his teeth once and for all.
I must admit that I have often questioned whether, musically brilliant as these works are, they constitute real 'listener's music', their true glories revealed only in that intimate relationship with player or score-reader. Christopher Herrick proves me wrong most decisively.
Here are thoroughly enjoyable performances in anyone's book. Could anybody resist the charms of the G major's first movement bubbling here like good champagne, or the haunting beauty of the E minor's second movement? Every movement yields up wonders and delights hitherto often obscured by an obsession with technical detail and a certain stylistic arrogance. That's not to say that Herrick sacrifices one iota of technical surefootedness or musical integrity. Indeed the precision and neatness of his playing is remarkable, while his wholly natural phrasing of each individual line and unfussy, unobstrusive ornamentation point to an innate sense of style.
The Metzler in Bremgarten (replacing an instrument destroyed by fire in 1964) makes a ravishing sound in a lusciously warm acoustic: all splendidly captured by Hyperion. It seems to be equipped with an endless array of perfectly-balanced trio-combinations all of which are clearly mapped out in the accompanying booklet. The tone is refreshingly meaty too: none of that wishy-washy, oh-so-refined stuff frequently associated with Trio-Sonata performances. This disc makes compelling listening, enhanced by an imaginative ordering of the Sonatas (2, 4, 5, 3, 6, 1).'