Search - Bach - Greatest Organ Works, Vol. 1 on DVD

Outstanding!

Philip Warner | Hampton Bays, New York USA | 10/16/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc and its companion (Vol II) are a joy to be enjoyed over and over. As someone who plays the organ(I'm no organist!)
I throughly enjoyed Herr Stamm's playing of Bach. Like the "middle bear" in The Three Bears, his playing is "just
right"... neither too slow nor too fast. His registrations are varied and suitable to those of Bach's time and the choice of works includes enough variation to keep the volumes interesting.I had the great joy of visiting a "sister" organ to this instrument... the Trost Organ in Altenburg back in 1981. I still recall its wonderful singing quality, lacking the harsher mixtures of the North German Baroque organs of the 16th century. This organ, like the Altenburg, has the silvery qualities of the Silbermann's and were known to be of Bach's liking. So why only four stars rather than five? Well I would gladly give it four and a half but five... no. I would wish for more
camera on the pedal passages and less of the Church overheadand organ facade... lovely as they are. In particular those
passages where the pedals are solo or carrying the line should
have been given over to the camera. In another review a listener has wisely suggested three cameras allowing the viewer to choose what he would like to see at any given moment. That would rate a star all by itself! I hope this wonderful series will continue on DVD. If you have any interest in the glory of J.S. Bach on a real organ then these discs are a must."

Fantastic Sound!

D. MCMULLAN | Phoenix, AZ | 01/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The sound on this DVD is better than I expected. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack produces a truly enveloping experience. The balance among the channels is so precise that you feel like you are in the church. For those who have hi-fi equipment, you will also be pleased with the 48k/24 bit non-compressed stereo, which delivers the sound in absolute purity. This is the best sounding organ recording I have heard. The only disapointment I have with this performance is the conservative use of registration changes. Being an organist, I would expect the Passacaglia to include more tonal changes. However, on this period instrument, I can see the difficulty in making very quick registration changes. One more thing, it is odd that they show the face of the performer upclose from a camera on the console. Hans expression is almost comical."

Great Organ Music

Paul E. Lundy | Wallingford, IA USA | 02/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great program, great sound, and great photography. It is often hard to get good video of an organ; they do a terrific job here of showing the keyboard, fingering etc. But the best for me is the music analysis on subtitle 2. Since I saw my first DVD 3 years ago, I have been looking for someone to start offering such analysis. It helps those of us who are not expert in music to understand better what's going on. The organ registration on subtitle 3 is interesting, but not useful to me. I hope that we will see a lot more classical music DVD's with this analysis. It can't cost that much, and if one doesn't want to see it, you don't have to turn it on."

Amazing sound experience !

Steve | 02/06/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Great sound, both in multichannel mode and PCM stereo. This is my first DVD that really turns me on. 48k/24b uncompressed stereo track gives the idea of perfect sound reproduction in home entertaining system. Even if You are not a classical music fan, You'll be surprised with a lot of positive and emotional experiences when listening to this Concert. A little disappointment comes from the fact, that this DVD do not allow playing it in "recorded 96k/24b format". My DVD player allows playing in this "rich" format without downsampling. 4 (****) stars just for this fact, but 5 (*****) stars for overall performance. Great music DVD !"