Greetings, List!
 
Is there anyone out there in cyberland who is (well-)acquainted with S.
Karg-Elert's Opus 150: Passacaglia, Variation, and Fugue on "BACH"?
 
I have ported around with me the score of the above-mentioned work for
some years, learned chunks of it to the point of familiarity at various
times, but never got it altogether and certainly never performed it
publicly, but am now thinking of doing so for a major recital at a
"Music, Worship, and the Arts" symposium in the summer of 1999.  It is
indeed a somewhat curious "major work" (about 35 pages' worth in
length), the last of Karg-Elert's output for the organ, and composed
around 1932 for an American concert tour.
 
I would welcome all factual responses or opinions on the following
questions:
 
1.  Is/Are there any recording(s) of the composition: commercial,
private, authoritative, and/or just plain extant?
 
2.  Has anyone on the list learned/played the work (recently), and, if
so, would you kindly share thoughts on matters of mastery and
performance.
 
3.  If anyone is familiar with the work through study, performance, or
as a concert-listener, what are your aesthetic judgments/opinions of the
composition, particularly in view of the time and effort required to
master the composition, and in relation to the corpus of symphonic organ
literature (e.g., Reger, the French school, Sowerby, etc.) dating from
the late-19th and early-20th centuries?
 
Private responses (unless you think the list really wants to -- or ought
to --  know something about the Karg-Elert "BACH"), if you please.  AND
THANK YOU for taking the time to respond!
 
Charles H. Luedtke, DMA, AAGO
Professor of Music/Organ
Martin Luther College
New Ulm,  MN
 
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Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.
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