Fantasia & Fugue Bwv 542

BEN VAN OOSTEN

Ben van Oosten has been virtually showered with awards and honors for his recordings of French romantic organ music, for which he has even been dubbed a knight. In this light the historic audio achievement now being released by MDG for the first time on album is all the more interesting: four organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the Dutch virtuoso on the organ in the Grote Kerk in Breda when he was only 28 years old. Van Oosten got off to a magnificent start with the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor. One can imagine how the members of selection committee were blown away when Bach applied for the post of organist at Hamburg’s Jakobikirche with a performance of this work. It was certainly not because of the “Kaffeewasserfuge” that Bach was not successful: he withdrew his application when he learned that the business-minded authorities expected the payment of a larger sum of money from the lucky winner. The six Trio Sonatas number among the highlights of Bach’s oeuvre. It is with the finest art that the organ assumes the independent voices otherwise assigned to several instruments- a form of chamber music loved during Bach’s time. And then a little bit of French influence also ends up being felt: Marcel Dupre’s organ transfer of the Sinfonia from the “Rathauswahlkantate,” once derived by Bach from the Prelude of the Partita in E flat for violin solo.