Best Bach Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor

To all who posted, thank you for your feedback. I stumbled across a Deutsche Grammaphon recording of Helmut Walcha titled Great Organ Works. The presence and spatial definition are amazing. Very full dynamic Range. And The DG sound quality is superb. If you are looking for a great one, pick it up.

To Subaruguru, A belated and sincere round of applause from me. I'm impressed. I'm a Lutheran Pastor's son. Some of my earliest memories are of Bach on the church pipe organ. My father and his organist friends used to play Bach all the time when I was growing up. It's really difficult music and a recording even on my big bucks system can't come close to it live. Given my background I'm sure you would not be suprised to know that I treasure my Helmut Walcha disks.

My 1969 performance (as a seventeen-yr-old) on a Casavant Freres 4-rank French Canadian organ in the St Jean-de-Baptiste Church in Central Falls, Rhode Island. I even got through the final runs with nary a slip, and was shaking afterwards. I don't own a recording of the piece, and find playing it on my Steinway nowadays nostalgic, but NOTHING like that experience as a kid. Blown away? Sure...and I didn't even know an alternate meaning of the phrase! Phew....

Thanks,got my organist mixed up with my country western singer.I got both on vinyl(Fox& Murry) That last couple of minutes tears me up/ as in not boring to me.Sort of like the many John Williams-horn,piano,conductor,---us old guys!We never get it right.

Avguygeorge, is that Michael MURRAY on the old Telarc D to D? You're right, it is a good recording. I'm sure he's also recorded it on CD for Telarc. Murray is the perfect organist for direct to disc because he never makes a mistake. However, I guess my heart lies with Fox, because Murray's performances ultimately seem boring to me.

Michael, Murphy Direct disc,a stunner!!

I listen to a lot of organ music (Dunlavy SC-V, trated room, Sigtech DSP with in room response measured flat to 24 HZ). I agree with Rcprince, if you want flash and LF, the Virgil recording is the way to go. Just don't think that this is even close to what Bach might have played. The recording also contains Franck's Piece Heroique which has a solid sub 20HZ pedal at about 1:30.

There are many better versions, but for low bass oomph and colorful (and I do mean colorful) registrations, the Virgil Fox recording The Fox Touch, Vol. 1 (on direct to disc Crystal Clear vinyl) or on the Bainbridge CD may fill the bill. I always enjoyed Virgil's liberties with the scores and his imagination in registrations; others don't. The recording is of a bright organ in a DEAD space--very little sound of the space in which the organ was located. Virgil did like to use the pedals, though, probably more than most others do. I played this disc for an organ student from Germany, who was alternately laughing or marvelling at the interpretation, depending on the part. On a more staid note, I like Christopher Herrick's interpretations on Hyperion, but there's nothing particularly sonically spectacular about the disc with this piece.

Jcidulka I have a version on "The Classical Collection" a Musical Heritage Society release that I've had for years the catalog # is 532814L. This one should do the trick. Harold Britton playing the Organ at Royal Albert Hall.