So much of this sounds to me like the ebb and flow of the sea.. 3/4 time.. Such wonderful variety inside a fugue! I LOVE Bach!!! I've been listening to Bach for over 60 years.. and still find amazing delights within each piece! So satisfying!! 3/4 time was Bach's favorite time signature!

When ever I was down just hearing him play picked me up and able to start fighting again. Please don’t think I’m crazy but I will always believe he was Bach reincarnated. I miss him so much God grant you eternal rest

A man who lived Bach!

I can Player the adeste fideles too

An actual Organ Symphony, that actually features the organ playing a fantastic solo!

0:22 I think I've just listened to this for about the 200th time time.... it is ASTONISHING musicianship. I can play this piece, but not like Dr Fox..... who could? The restraint, the refusal to "push" any harmony or tempo is SO in tune with the music and the meaning. And.... from Dr Fox!! All of you who know his amazing (controversial!) oeuvre surely can hear as I do a VERY different man playing here. No ego, no bravado, no Dr fox.... he is simply immersed in JSB like no other recording of his I've heard (and loved). This was not Virgil "playing".... this is Virgil's soul laid bare. If you ever asked yourself "who was Virgil Fox?" Then you need only to listen to this. Total command, total control, totally "at one" with instrument, composer and..... I can't help myself, even as an atheist.... with God. Whatever the divine is, it's laid out in front of you right here, just like this......

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

He was truly a blessed genius.

He was proclaimed a genius at the age of 17.... look up his professional history...

does anybody know if the score has been published?

As a teen, I loved listening to my vinyl copy of Virgil Fox playing this on the Wanamaker organ!

❤Virgil was "the best of his kind!!"😊

This piece is what joy sounds like!

My late father spoke of having been delighted many years ago by an organ recital he had attended of Virgil Fox's. Much later, my sister and I were very fortunate to have caught one of Virgil Fox's Heavy Organ concerts!

This is one if not the best renditions or this great hymn of faith. Virgil Fox is truly the master of the organ.

Wonderful playing. The accuracy and articulation are amazing, ever more so considering how unforgiving electronic organs of the time were.. One correction I must make back through the years: Elgar was never organist of Gloucester Cathedral (or any other major English cathedral).

Marvelous artistry! Great organist! Great Hymn! Inspiring Singing! O God, Our Help in Ages Past Thank you Issac Watts Thank you Lord! ❤ PTL

I remember the day Virgil Fox died; I was in college and cut classes that day in sadness. What is even sadder is that 6 months earlier I didn't go to a concert he did because I couldn't find a date; how sad!

I'm not gay, but i love watching him play!!

I have this in cd really impressive!!

w o w ✨

My dad took me and a friend to see him at Wolf Trap in the 1970s. The organ hooked up to big amplifiers with Virgils narration. Really great.

I first heard Virgin Fox play the Gigue Fugue sometime during my senior year in high school. I went out and bought the 8-Track tape and promptly put Led Zepplin and Yes on the back burner for a while.

My dear late father bought one of his albums, playing this organ, in the 1960's. Forever after that, I became hooked on the classical pipe organ! Oh, what a blessing it is, when we introduce our children to something beautiful and of long-lasting value! I'm forever thankful to him!

He loved life and performing.

Fox created here eternity... 😢🎉😅😅

Imagine what Rick Wakeman could have done with that organ!

There is a Telarc recording of this at the Davis Symphony Hall. It is a piece that the organ has to DOMINATE the orchestra and here it does, courtesy of Virgil Fox and the heavy organ. Truly masterful.

Few performers "own" a particular piece of music. But in organ circles, everyone plays the Fox version. Although I have to admit that it comes up a little short on my 25 stop Casavant. lol

A wonderful, unbelievable piece of music, fantastic! But every time I hear it I get into a strange, almost ghostly mood: I begin to love my death, almost to long for it. A peculiar, slightly melancholic yet joyful mood arises. A very beautiful, deep organ work which I love very much, but I mustn't listen to it too often.. It's actually a great pity that Virgil Foxe's performance hasn't even been digitally renovated - unfortunately, you can clearly hear that it was recorded a very long time ago. 👋👋👋👋👑👋👋👋 '

Only on the Black Beauty can Virgil Fox play the variation @ 6:16 the way he did. To me...the variation sounds "right' on this instrument.

What a gift to be able to see and hear Virgil Fox as much as you want 44 years after he died. He was and still is my greatest inspiration!🎉

Does anyone know if there is a copy of this recording outside of this youtube video? It sounds like its been cleaned up and the background fuzz has been reduced massively from the actual 1964 recording.

I'm sure Bach would have loved to hear this piece on such a magnificent organ. The organ, a masterpiece in its own right, made any organ in Bach's time seem somewhat inferior in richness of tone and voices. The advantages of electricity and technology I guess.

Virgil Fox was just a showman for simple minds. There is little music in his performances, and even less culture

It's sort of one big long fanfare, yes? It's astonishing in its own way, of course, but it does grow a bit tiring because the themes are so trite.

Move over Dr. Phibes

Yes, yes

Virgil could dance, chew gum and play the pipe organ at the same time!

I saw and heard Virgil Fox, in person when I wax 12 years old: it was a sensation. He was an extraordinary performer & had an incredible magnetism and connection with the audience, both young and old from children to senior citizens. And one of the things that people don’t note about Virgil Fox, he was an extraordinary practicer. It is known that he spent somewhere around 15 to 20 hours of every day practicing.

I've been a fan of Virgil Fox since 1972 when I saw him play at the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, MI. I think the lightshow was by Revelation Lights. The last few years, I've been a fan of Jonathan Scott...I would like to see him play this piece.

I was very fortunate to have see him live and he is the best solo performer I've ever seen! No need to say more!

If you consider the Psalms and one of them mandating that we make a joyous noise for the Lord, I think Virgil did it. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he shared duties of playing the Heavenly pipes with Bach himself.

Not strict rythm

Saw him in concert many times. Pure joy!

One thing people don't appreciate here is the actual recording. The Wanamaker is extremely difficult to record, because of it's huge size, and the very strange acoustics of the store. Plus Fox's registrations here are incredibly wide. So a tip of the hat to the engineer that recorded this.

To anyone who complains about Virgil Fox, let’s see you play this!!!

Vulgar comes close to describing this awful show.

I saw him perform in 1974 while I was in college. I tried to go to every type of music concert available, rock, jazz, blues, folk, country, reggae, soul, pop, you name it. Virgil Fox educated us all about Bach, told incredible stories, made us laugh, and just blew the audience away with his performance. He was incredible.

A child prodigy, blessed with a warm outgoing personality. The courage never left him, even in clutches of cancer.