| Comments: | Willem Van Galen said:
"THE FOX TOUCH VOL 0"?
In contrast to "The Fox Touch Vol. 1 & 2", which was Virgil Fox's last professional recording (recommended elsewhere on the J.S. Bach Home Page), this collection of "encores" dates from almost twenty years earlier. It is an equally magnificent example of Fox's inimitable flair, virtuosity, and "sense of the beyond" which characterized his playing and continues to appeal to many.
ADDING NEW DIMENSIONS TO STANDARD REPERTOIRE
Here, too, Fox renders familiar compositions in unconventional ways. A prime example is the first movement of Bach's 6th trio sonata.
- Fox gives us a decidedly 'lightfooted" version, and almost literally so, because the pedal voice is played with an uncommonly light registration.
- Of the remaining voices, the middle one, rather than the upper one, is given the greatest prominence.
- During the thrice-occurring sequence of a pattern of 8 sixteenth notes, Fox plays a gradual diminuendo. This would of course have been impossible to do in Bach's day, because it requires a swell box. But even though it is therefore not "authentic", it speaks of Fox's musical authority that this effect sounds completely appropriate within this particular performance.
- Add to this the lively tempo with which Fox traverses this movement, and one is left wishing that he would have recorded the entire sonata, indeed all six sonatas!
Another highlight of this issue is Fox's staggering performance of Mulet's "Tu Es Petra", which, quite possibly, is without equal on CD. He plays it "as if in a trance" (I tried to find other words to describe it, but I'm unable to do so; listen for yourself).
ARRANGEMENTS
Then there are arrangements of compositions not originally written for the organ. They, and the people who play them, sometimes form an easy target for supposedly more sophisticated individuals. In Fox's case, arrangements do not seem to represent cheap sentimentality, but rather attempts to use the organ to entertain, if nothing else, or, more profoundly, to catch a glimpse of another sphere. To my ears, on this CD the arrangement which best achieves the latter is the Aria of Handel's Concerto No. 10 for strings, while the former is accomplished quite nicely with the arrangement for organ solo of the first movement of the same composer's Organ Concerto No. 4 in F.
CONCLUSION
This is a CD no organ lover should be without.
- If you consider yourself a "purist", and don't fancy the Virgil Fox phenomenon, you should at least be familiar with that which you don't like; but be warned, you may yet end up appreciating Fox's playing!
- If you're interested in excellent organ music, no matter who plays it, you'll probably enjoy (or already have enjoyed) this production a great deal.
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