Some years ago Marie-Claire Alain gave a series of Bach recitals in London's Royal Festival Hall. The one enduring memory I have of those is how, over successive evenings, she never seemed to use the same registration twice. Her uncanny knack of finding new and varied sounds from an organ is perhaps her most outstanding quality.
She has performed much the same miracle here, although, of course, on the Groningen organ she hasn't had to work so hard to produce suitable sounds; unlike the cold calculating creature in the RFH this 1740 Schnitger is naturally sympathetic to the music of Bach. Marie-Claire Alain is also entirely sympathetic towards Bach's music and while we may be amazed at her registrative resourcefulness she always makes registration the servant of the music and never an end in itself. A lifetime as one of the world's finest organists hasn't dulled her sense of adventure and enthusiasm. Here with a new recording of repertory she must have been playing throughout her professional career (and has recorded at least once before for Erato) she plays with all the freshness and vigour of an eager young student exploring this music for the first time—but with a technical facility and innate understanding of style which can only come after years of experience.
The Clavierubung Part 3 contains 21 chorale preludes following the scheme of the Mass mostly grouped in pairs where, during the Mass, one would have been played on a small chamber organ and the other on the main organ. There are also four Duettos, and all is framed within the magnificent Prelude and Fugue in E flat (BWV552). Alain has made no real attempt to imitate the contrast between the 'small' and the 'large' organ preludes and the result is immensely satisfying if not entirely authentic. There is a wealth of glorious music here, highlights of this performance being a wonderfully buoyant Wir glauben all' an einen Gott (BWV680) and a beautifully translucent account of the second Allein Gott in der Hoh' sei Ehr.
In addition to the Clavierubung this two-disc set contains two major works and two of Bach's most delightful chorale preludes; although it is in one of these, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend, that Alain makes her only serious error of judgement in matters of registration. The pedals are so indistinct that we completely lose the final statement of the chorale melody. But that is a small matter and should not put anyone off a recording of immense musical value.'