<< -- 3 -- Robert Anderson INCONTROVERTIBLE LOGIC
Gillian Weir ends with a towering masterpiece, the Toccata and Fugue in F,
which tests player and instrument to the limit. Both emerge triumphant, and
Priory is to be congratulated on capturing so magnificent a volume of sound
so faithfully. It is not long before C P E's main point about his father's
organ music is superbly illustrated, even if the sluggish English have since
caught up: 'The pedal has at times much brilliant and quick material, which,
however, only practised masters can play, and the like of which may never have
been heard in England'
[listen -- CD 2 track 12, 0:00-1:27].
C P E said of Handel's fugues that they were good enough, 'but he often
abandons a voice'. Bach by contrast has the incontrovertible logic of a
mighty philosopher in music, and the F major fugue heads for an emphatic
Q E D that could not be more grandly or eloquently expressed
[listen -- CD 2 track 13, 0:00-1:35].
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