REGER. Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Op. 46. Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor. Gunther Ramin (organ). Recorded at Beckerath, Germany. D.G.G. DG16089 (10 in., 30s. 1 ld.).

Until his death a year or two ago, Gunther Ramin was organist at Bach's Thomaskirche in Leipzig, and had a. good reputation as a recitalist. This is the first organ record of his to be released in this country, and though it has defects it is to be welcomed. The main work is an elephantine fantasia and fugue by Max Reger, each bar crammed cropful with notes ; indeed, in the fantasia each bar fills a whole line for page after page. It must be prodigiously difficult. I remember that great organist Cunningham playing the work in this country before the war, but few players anywhere would attempt it in public. Ramin gets in a bit of a tangle on a number of occasions, and he often seems to have difficulty in playing all the notes of a chord exactly together, but he makes a brave shot at it. It is a pity that the disc turns over in the middle of the fugue. Side 2 is completed by another of Reger's organ pieces, this time on, for him, a rather more modest scale, but not of any very great interest. The B-A-C-H work is a curious mixture of inflated hokum (if such a thing is possible) and genuine inspiration ; the end of the Fantasia is tremendous stuff. The fugue is one of those (Mendelssohn's in E minor for piano is another) in which the tempo gets gradually faster from start to finish. Ramin goes two-thirds of the way with the composer, but then gives up the struggle against appalling odds and holds a tempo he can just about manage for the last few pages, despite Reger's optimistic requests to pile it on yet more. Frankly Ramin has not quite the virtuoso qualities Reger asks for. But, then, who has? The recording is pretty good, though I would not pretend that in this great blaze of sound the part-writing always comes over clearly.

R.F.