When his first LP of music by Bach was released, André Isoir had no intention of embarking on a complete recording. But the record label had marked ‘Volume I’ on the sleeve . . . ‘I was cornered!’ he remarked good-humouredly. It was a stroke of luck! For he continued the adventure, at a tranquil pace set by himself. This was in 1975. The great preludes and fugues, the trio sonatas, the Orgelbüchlein recorded at Aurich, Frankfurt, and Esch-sur-Alzette all enjoyed immense success, backed up by outstanding recorded sound. We know the rest of the story . . . The releases came one after the other, moving inexorably towards a complete edition – which was followed in 1999 by an interpretation of The Art of Fugue. In the first period, George Kisselhoff was the sound engineer. From 1988 onwards, for the second phase of the project, Igor Kirkwood was at the recording desk and André Isoir himself supervised the sound aesthetic. He thus became his own recording producer, finding a fresh impetus for his interpretations, still more personal because freer. It was in the course of this second phase that he decided to remake the four toccatas and the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor. The maestro, then at the peak of his powers, produced one of the most intense moments of his complete survey of the organ music. But for editorial reasons that recording did not feature in the previous release as a boxed set. This new edition includes it for the first time in the present set of fifteen CDs. 31 ANDRÉ ISOIR
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