Bach's Choral Preludes
Played by Dr. W. G. Alcock
Relayed from St. Margaret's, Westminster
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns
(Jesus Christ, our Saviour) (Canto fermo in Pedal)
Jesus Christus, Unser Heiland, der von uns
Valet will ich dir genes (I give thee now farewell) Valet will ich dir geben
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (Dearest Jesu, we are here)
Bachwas a magnificent organ player, the greatest organ player in the opinion of those who heard him that ever lived, and tliere has been found no reason to dispute that that opinion holds for all time. As a child lie was astonishing his elders, ae a young man he held his hearers spellbound with his genius for improvisation, and his organ compositions bear witness to his unapproached supremacy as a writer for the organ. The base upon which he built his art and developed his powers as organ composer and player was the German Choral, and of all his compositions for the organ the most consistently beautiful and successful are the Choral Preludes. He was writing these throughout his life. There are considerably over a hundred of them, those which Bach at the end of his life put together into five collections alone numbering ninety. The earliest of these date from before his Cothen days, and the last, the one with which this series is to conclude, Wenn wir in hochsten Nothein schi, was dedicated to his son-in-law by the blind and stricken genius on his deathbed.