Johann Sebastian Bach’s profound devotion to Lutheran Christianity pervades the majority of his organ music, most of all in his great collection, Clavierübung III (literally, Keyboard Practice 3—!), the only major organ collection he chose to publish. In tribute to Martin Luther, Bach utilized the ten chorales of the former’s German Mass, composing two settings of each—one for manuals and pedals, the other for manuals only. (The single exception is Glory be to God in the Highest which has two settings for hands only and a third with pedal.) With rare musical penetration and technical prowess, renowned concert organist Jonathan Dimmock presented 13 selections from this monumental volume on Sunday at the First Lutheran Church of Boston, playing the church’s sublime Richards, Fowkes organ, built in 2000 and considered the definitive German Baroque organ in Boston. Dimmock also provided his own exemplary program notes, combining theoretical and musicological analysis for the connoisseur with interesting facts and history for the layperson, seasoned with his obvious enthusiasm for this music.
Clavierübung III opens with the beloved Prelude in E flat, BWV 552, 1, combining the nobility of a French overture with the brilliance of an Italian concerto. While Dimmock’s sharp double-dotting evoked a degree of majesty, his approach emphasized ebullience over pomp. In any case, it made a grand introduction and invitation for the other pieces from the collection.
Following the grandeur of this prelude, Dimmock chose to give us the more intimate manuals-only settings of the first three chorales which depict the Trinity: Lord, God the Father in Eternity (BWV 672), Christ, Comfort of All the World (BWV 673), and Lord, God the Holy Ghost (BWV 674). In the first the artist made effective use of a beautiful yet substantive single 8’ Prinzipal stop to evoke God the Father. The second, illustrating Christ as the Son of God, had a more child-like affect thanks to the sweet sound of a 4’ flute with tremulant in Bach’s more playful setting. For the more complex setting of God the Holy Ghost, Dimmock chose a more involved registration of 8’ reed colored by the Sesquialtera to reinforce the second and fourth overtones.
The performer chose the manuals & pedal version of Glory be to God in the Highest, BWV 676, which places the hands on different manuals with a third voice in the pedals. Dimmock used three well-matched 8’ flutes and a range of articulation, coupled with fluent playing, to achieve a pellucid texture that made the work sound remarkably easy though, in fact, this chorale prelude is as technically demanding as any of Bach’s famously difficult trio sonatas.
Continuing to subvert the expectation that manuals-with-pedals settings will always be imposing, the artist’s playing of These Are the Holy Ten Commandments, BWV 678, retained the reflective, quieter quality of the preceding pieces, with the tune (in an octave canon) played on a gentle reed. The many paired notes in the right hand’s accompaniment (one of the very few times Bach wrote slurs in his manuscript) had a lovely caressing effect.
The performer opted to give us both versions of We All Believe in One God, BWV 680 and 681: the contrast of this pair is particularly great. Bach specifies full organ in BWV 680 which Dimmock used, complete with 16’ (added lower octave) in the hands; his performance of this imposing work had all the gravitas one could wish for but always maintained clarity of counterpoint with well-judged articulation. The flowing lines of BWV 680 could hardly be more different from the spiky rhythms of BWV 681, for hands only. Its near-continuous dotted rhythms, supplemented by its numerous and difficult ornaments, perhaps didn’t provide a clear example of a French overture but evoked authority nonetheless in Dimmock’s commanding performance.
Next came possibly Bach’s most ambitious chorale setting, Our Father in Heaven, BWV 682, as it is arguably as demanding for the listener as for the player. Here too the composer took unusual pains to indicate articulation with slurs and staccato dots. As with BWV 676, he cast it in the form of a trio, but with the differentiated rhythm and articulation (often happening simultaneously in different voices), it is possibly even a sterner test of the organist. Eschewing the lyricism of the earlier trio, Bach’s harmonic language here is continually chromatic and often daringly dissonant. Dimmock’s simple registration (8’ stops in the hands with 16” and 8’ in the feet) let us hear the many harmonic clashes while his articulation remained ever faithful to the score, effectively contrasting the Scotch snap-style dotted rhythms with the staccato triplets. Bach’s musical symbolism, particularly in this performer’s hands, seemed to say that Our Father is a being of multiple personalities, challenging to comprehend. This was a fascinating performance that indeed challenged the listener.
Christ, our Lord, to Jordan Came, BWV 684, provides an especially striking example of musical word-painting, with the constant running sixteenth notes in the left hand depicting the flowing waters of the River Jordan (the theme of this chorale is baptism). Somewhat unusually, the pedal provides not the bass but the tenor voice, which was reinforced by the artist’s registration: 8’ and 4’ flutes in the right hand, 16’ and 8’ in the left hand, and 8’ Trompet in the pedal for the cantus firmus. While some organists yield to the temptation to race through this piece, Dimmock’s moderately brisk tempo was ideal to keep the rapidly shifting harmonies of the B section entirely clear.
The monumental Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee, BWV 686, Bach’s only organ work in six voices, features two pedal parts, i.e., two voices for each hand and one for each foot, with the chorale tune placed in the “baritone” voice of the right foot. Despite this work generally having the slowest tempo of the whole collection, it remains a test of the organist’s contrapuntal skills in keeping track of the six voices. Also, the two independent pedal voices contain a number of treacherous leaps. As the title implies, it marks the emotional summit of Clavierübung III, a veritable cri de coeur played at full organ, yet it ends optimistically, introducing the “joy motif” (another example of this anapest rhythm is the first movement of the third Brandenburg Concerto). This listener felt emotionally wrung out at the conclusion, a good indicator of a first-class performance.
After the chorale settings, Bach inserted four Duetti (two-part inventions on steroids) before the collection’s final fugue. Dimmock favored us with the second Duetto, in F Major (BWV 803). In its ABA form, the outer sections frolicked freely, while the middle section formed a foil with considerable chromatic expressiveness. The piece provided a welcome respite after the epic journey of BWV 686.
As the collection opens with the Prelude in E-flat Major, it logically concludes with the Fugue in E-flat Major (BWV 552, 2), laden with musical symbolism alluding to the Trinity: a triple fugue in a key with three flats, with the different fugue subjects combining as the piece proceeds, ending in triplet-based rhythm. In Dimmock’s hands, the opening section proceeded with stately elegance, the second scampered deliciously, and the concluding section’s subject danced before combining with the previous ones in an ever-growing proclamation of joy that led to a breathtaking ending. Not every performance that receives a standing ovation deserves it, but this one assuredly did.