One of the goals of Archiv Produktion (founded in 1947) was to register historical instruments, insofar as they survived the Second World War. Helmut Walcha's recording of Bach's Schübler chorales took up no less than three records (Archiv1001-3), because at that time each side of the record could only contain about five minutes of music. This recording was the start of a very large selection from
… Bach's organ oeuvre, in which Helmut Walcha not only played the small organ of the Jakobi-Kirche in Lübeck (the organ of the late Hugo Distler), but also the Schnitger organ in Cappel. The latter location was chosen because the recording technicians here were less troubled by street noise. These mono recordings by Helmut Walcha are hardly known today, because the organist competed with his first Bach cycle with his later stereo recordings. Nevertheless, the first cycle did well in Japan and America, partly thanks to the possibilities of the long-playing record that has since been invented. Helmut Walcha's first Bach cycle is impressive in its integrity, although nowadays there is hardly any organist who plays so rigidly in time. There is therefore a danger that we will condemnly reject these types of outdated performances, because the modes surrounding the Bach interpretation have changed radically since then. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to study the best organ music of all time from a different perspective: the rubati (as they gained popularity in the 1970s thanks to Leonhardt and Brüggen) were not rejected by Helmut Walcha for nothing because of the 'mystery' of the "unbelievably strict and profound pulse." Walcha's concentration on this pulse must have been sharpened in part by his blindness, which forced him to memorize the entire organ oeuvre of Bach. As a result, Bach folk folk have become a true 'document humain', which (dated or not) deserves all respect. (HJ)more
