Johann Sebastian Bach : Trio Sonatas for Organ, BWV 525-530

   in Early Music Today (Dec, 2011)
Bach’s compositions for keyboard span the entirety of his long creative life, yet untypical for the time, he treated the organ and harpsichord as two separate genres. Perhaps the crowning glory of his organ output are the six trio sonatas BWV 525-530 which date from 1727 when the composer was firmly settled in Leipzig. The obbligato pedal combined with two upper voices creates the Italianate trio sonata texture, a common enough genre of the time but one which only Bach achieved in a solo instrument. On this recording by the sub-organist of Westminster Abbey, Robert Quinney (playing the 1965 Frobenius organ of The Queen’s College, Oxford), finely wrought contrapuntal lines remain …