J. S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in E Major BWV 566 | Balint Karosi St Thomas Church, New York City

[@majathomi3021]

Es ist ein grosses Geschenk, Ihnen beim Spiel zuschauen zu dürfen. Der Hörgenuss wird um ein Vielfaches verstärkt. Herzlich danke ich Ihnen Herr Karosi...aus der Schweiz

[@agogobell28]

That is one of the most effective 10-2/3’ quints I’ve ever heard - the 32’ effect is uncannily good.

[@roaringbasslines6221]

I've been listening to this like twice a day for two months 😅Once you've heard this it's difficult to go back to other interpretations. Dimmock's interpretation in his "Bach at Haarlem" is also quite good, but this is indisputably number 1. The way he phrases the pedal part in the first section of the prelude and then opens everything up at 1:14, a dream recording

[@Jack-eo5fn]

Brilliant performance, Balint. Thanks and thanks!

[@paqman67]

Beautifully played, Mr. Karosi! I love this oft played organ piece by Mr. Johnny Brook...:P In the "Stylus Phantasticus" of the old German organ school! Herr Kerl/Pachelbel/Buxtehude/Böhm would have been proud! Even Johann Adam Reincken, who was supposedly 99 years old when Bach met him in 1720(?)was impressed by Bach(I thought this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you.)

[@lerkkweed]

Wonderful! A Bach organ work I've never heard before. Masterful rendition. Thank you.

[@АлександрЯрков-ш2з]

Bravo bravo bravo brilliance fantastic grandiose genial music super super super wow wow wow

[@greatpianomusic9457]

What a delightful fugue. Your excellent Bach is always a good way to start my day. Many thanks from 🇨🇦

[@hummingbird9221]

What a beautiful instrument , Sir. Thank you for a lovely presentation.

[@TheJohn1567]

One of my favorites, Played Brilliantly

[@paulbombardier8722]

Excellent as always. I was not at all familiar with this piece, so thank you for this performance. Delightful, simply delightful.

[@bachkirche]

This is a Taylor and Boody organ (I looked it up): "The firm of Taylor & Boody of Staunton, Virginia built the instrument which contains twenty-one stops over two manuals and a pedal. The instrument is inspired by the tradition of organ building which was active in the Netherlands and North Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A third manual (Brustwerk) and several prepared-for stops were added in 2016. Stop and key action are mechanical and the temperament is Kellner."

[@MarcelMangnus]

Balint, you did a wonderful job here! I'm studying this work right now, so many thanks for the inspiration!

[@ianbrowne8871]

Delighted to hear this rarely played piece which sounded at home on this fine instrument. I enjoyed the pauses for the change of registration - I reminder of the hard work needed by organist of previous centuries. The Sutton brothers of 19th century England lamented the loss of cathedral instruments by Harris and Smith with the installation of ever larger organs which had to be controlled by comb8nation pedals and pistons. They called them ‘music mills’ and commented on the too frequent changes of registration in psalm accompaniments. Too frequent changes of registration can be irritating and it’s good to let the organ speak so that you can get to know it. St Thomas’s is lucky to have both kinds of instrument - what looks to be a magnificent music mill at the east end and this gem at the west end.

[@brentstockdale4478]

One of an exceedingly few reasons to visit NYC. Magnificent.

[@joscallinet6260]

@@brentstockdale4478 Would you characterize your laudatory view of New York City as a place possessing "exceedingly few reasons" for visiting it, as "FAINT PRAISE"? Yours is the East-Coast equivalent of my father's unforgettable appraisal of Los Angeles, as he himself put it, "the armpit of the nation.'

[@joscallinet6260]

@ Ian Browne: Your description of the instrument at the East End of St. Thomas's Church in Manhattan as a "magnificent music mill" made me immediately think of it as the auditory equivalent of a gigantic hydraulic press stamping out metal car parts by the thousands at a General Motors automotive plant in Detroit - not exactly the most complimentary musical imagery. Your comment makes me all the more grateful for the fact that here we are listening INSTEAD to "this gem at the West End," which it truly is, and so beautifully played!.

[@ianbrowne8871]

@@joscallinet6260 I have only been able to visit NYC twice and I missed the existence of this organ when i went into StT. Coming for the UK one has to learn NYC is much further south and has more intense sunlight and as a result the stained glass in the church is rather more dense. I found the interior incredibly dark (this is not an insult, I found the same at Chartres!) - large organ at the east end was near the focal point and I did not miss it. I was really commenting that the technological changes of the 19thC enabled the building of larger organs- steam powered blowing, new forms of action, heavier wind pressures, etc. English churches rarely have the height of this in France and the Netherlands which allowed light tracker actions with shallow cased organs with division in tiers. This led to the horizontal layout of many instruments which made mechanical action impossibly heavy for the player. Also the implementation of choral services in parish churches saw organs removed from west galleries (the best place to support congregational singing) to chancel chapels or organ chambers. Fine for choirs but useless for the congregation - and ever larger instrument were built to send sound into the nave. This usually failed, instruments were hard to maintain and expensive ... for me the most important this is that an organ should sing and actually be a musical instrument! It matters not if it is 5 stops or 50. If the acoustic is poor you wonder about the wisdom od installing expensive instruments.

[@justpassingthruuu]

wonderful! jsb was also a respected and feared organ-tester, he would play these or other fugues or toccatas with all stops opened hence only the top organs and organists can truly reflect the musical genius whose prayers of JJ - Jesu Juva, accompanied each of his compositions, thanking God at the end with SDG 🙌

[@PatrykBalukiewicz94]

It was a pleasure listening to Your performance of this masterpiece! :)

[@danburns79]

Excellent! One of my favorites!

[@michaelnancyamsden7410]

Fancy foot work. Beautiful music.

[@andreacosta74]

From 1:38 to 2:08 is shown how Bach (after Pop, Prog, Rock and Jazz) can be perfectly suited ALSO for a “hip-pop/Rap” song.

[@samshearman5251]

This is beautiful!

[@jozsefmakai9194]

Köszönöm Szépen!

[@arielguarino5698]

wonderful !!!

[@rosanacruz5133]

Balint, maravilhoso. Obrigada!

[@danvoight9393]

So beautiful!

[@jv04jm]

Absolutely brilliant! 👏

[@thunderhands3274]

Favorite!!

[@kyotokid4]

...indeed a rarely performed work of Mr. Bach and sad as it is such a delightful one.

[@josephadams2378]

It can be found in a few recordings on KZbin. There are versions in both C major and E major.

[@jameswalton3796]

0:01 2:26 6:26 7:14

[@g.k.failla9389]

Good. More "Bach by Balint"! Another commenter said the organ was American, by Taylor and Boody. True? Have wondered how he can travel so much and not be totaled by jet lag and time zones. He always looks so fresh and full of energy. From Chicago, U.S.A.

[@EElgar1857]

Very fine playing, as always! I don't think I even have a recording of this piece. I wonder why it's mostly ignored, when 565 is so over-played. (I know, it's the horror movie connection.)

[@peteacher52]

Does it get any better than this?!! If so, kindly show me . . . I think I must settle for a long wait!

[@MetalDan2405]

…Come Havinga, nessuno, sublime.

[@AllMusicEtc]

Tuning: 0c: A4 = 440Hz

[@talento398]

thank you for the registration! temperament ?

[@kirkpatrick415]

Bonjour Balint. Bravo pour toutes vos vidéos sur KZbin et merci de nous faire découvrir de beaux instruments! J'ai une remarque concernant la dernière fugue de cette piècz BWV 566. Après l'accord de triton avant la cadence finale, l'accord suivant dans votre version et celles d'un certain nombre d'organistes comporte un do# dans l'accord de Mi Majeur or sur la partition manuscrite de Bach il s'agit d'un accord parfait de Mi majeur. Je vous joins la vidéo avec le manuscrit. Merci de votre attention. Amitiés. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6a1kIGChNCjmK8

[@bkarosi]

mais sur l'enregistrement elle joue des notes fausses

[@kirkpatrick415]

Bonjour Oui c"est vrai vous avez raison mais je me réfère seulement à la partition pas à la réalisation de l'interprète. Merci encore@@bkarosi

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

Am I the only one thinking this organ (as with other Taylor and Boody organs) has an American twang?

[@joannescouchet7038]

In what sense? The American historically informed builders who were trained under Brombaugh definitely have a very distinctive sound.

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

@@joannescouchet7038 There's a somewhat nasal quality to the sound, and I'd wish to know how they achieve that...

[@matthijsvdw]

@@HenrikBergpianorganist I presume it's due to the voicing of the individual pipes, and due to the temperament. The temperament is not equal, as for example in a piano. It is Kellner.

[@RechtsstaatBRD]

Very nice. The 566 was not so familiar to me before. Thanks a lot for this. Great baroque organ. You'd think you're somewhere in Northern Germany. The church would certainly be able to handle twice as many registers from its abundance of space. I am sure you wanted a orignal-styled organ like that? Has the organ 32 or 64 principial too in the pedal?

[@mikeolsonengineer]

The great organ at the front: nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StThomasEpis.html

[@mikeolsonengineer]

The great organ at the front has 5 real 32' registers :)

[@RechtsstaatBRD]

@@mikeolsonengineer thanks a lot :-)

[@DutchBrad]

This organ has no 32 foot stops. It does have a 10 2/3 Quintbass.

[@matthijsvdw]

Whow that Quintbass adds some "Grativät"!

[@michaelnancyamsden7410]

Back again.

[@melanyarmstrong9329]

Ditto to roaringbasslines- 👞👞Thank you for wearing shoes.

[@bobh5087]

Organ-builder ?

[@epichdsheep]

Taylor and Boody he made a video with them not so long ago

[@bobh5087]

@@epichdsheep Thanks very much.

[@chrisrose6200]

Big sound, big organ, big American opening, only later comes the beauty of Bach!

[@dalerider3124]

what do you mean . . . "Only later comes . . . ?"

[@andrasbalogh3243]

Not a prelude, but a toccata

[@bkarosi]

My bad, corrected!

[@paqman67]

It can be called both..but I prefer Toccata in E Major myself, as this is really an old style North German Tocatta in the Buxtehude/Bruhns/Pachelbel/Böhm, et al. style:) I prefer to think of it as BWV's 565 big brother who's a better piece in my opinion(eventhough I LOVE the Toccata and Fugue in d)

[@matthijsvdw]

@@bkarosi According to Baerenreiter (based on the Neue Bach Ausgabe) it is a Praeludium 🙂