Helmut Walcha


Helmut Walcha was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German Baroque masters.
Blind since his teenage years, he is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, entirely played from memory.

Biography

Walcha was born on 27 October 1907 in Leipzig, Germany. After being vaccinated for smallpox at a young age, his eyesight slowly worsened until he became fully blind at age 19. Despite his disability, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory and became an assistant at the Thomaskirche to Günther Ramin, who was professor of organ at the conservatory and Thomaskantor. Some two decades later, Ramin would teach another renowned Bach interpreter and organist, Karl Richter. In 1929, Walcha accepted a position in Frankfurt am Main at the Friedenskirche and remained in Frankfurt for the rest of his life. From 1933 to 1938 he taught at the Hoch Conservatory. In 1938 he was appointed professor of organ at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt and organist of the Dreikönigskirche in 1946. He retired from public performance in 1981 and died in Frankfurt on 11 August 1991.
Walcha recorded Bach's complete solo keyboard works twice, once in mono and in stereo from 1956 to 1971. The former cycle has been digitally re-mastered and re-issued as a 10-CD boxed set. This latter stereo cycle, has been remastered, and repackaged in a 12-CD box. This edition also contains the recording of his own conclusion of the last fugue of The Art of Fugue - previously unreleased.
Walcha's completion of the last fugue of The Art of Fugue was also recorded by his former pupil George Ritchie as part of Ritchie's recording the work, released in 2010.
Walcha also composed for the organ. He published four volumes of original chorale preludes as well as arrangements for organ of orchestral works written by others.
He lectured on organ music and composition at the Hoch Conservatory and the Frankfurt Musikhochschule. One other contribution to music scholarship is his attempted completion of the final fugue of The Art of Fugue.
Walcha taught many significant American organists of the twentieth century who travelled to Germany : these include Robert Anderson, David Boe, Margaret Leupold Dickinson, Melvin Dickinson, Delbert Disselhorst, Betty Louise Lumby, Paul Jordan, David Mulbury, Fenner Douglass, Jane Douglass, Ray P. Ferguson, Grigg and Helen Fountain, Barbara Harbach, Charles Krigbaum, J. Reilly Lewis, George Ritchie, Margaret Vardell Sandresky, and Russell Saunders - all of whom became major teachers and performers after their studies abroad.
A section of the documentary film Desert Fugue is about Walcha, and explains how he memorised music part by part, and passed on this method of learning counterpoint to his pupils.

Selected works

Recordings

Works by others

Walcha's opus magnum is the recording of the entire organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach, which he recorded both in mono and stereo for Archiv Produktion. The original mono cycle was Archiv's first release and included an improvisation by Walcha at the Organ of St. Peter and Paul in Cappel, built by Arp Schnitger in 1680; Walcha also used the Stellwagen Organ in St Jacob Church in Lübeck. The stereo cycle was the first stereo recording made by Deutsche Grammophon and was reissued including Walcha's recording of The Art of Fugue, comprehensive of Walcha's own completion of the last fugue.
Helmut Walcha has also recorded most of Bach's harpsichord works for EMI. These recordings are still available from EMI-Toshiba as well as from Warner. The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations are also available in Europe in a 5-CD set. He also recorded The Well-Tempered Clavier for Deutsche Grammophon, using a Ruckers cembalo for the first book and a Hemsch for the second book. This recording is only available in the Far East.
Walcha's selection from the organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude was later reissued in a single CD release:
  • Dietrich Buxtehude: Orgelwerke • Organ Works. CD. Archiv Produktion, 1989, Catalog No. 427 133–2. Includes BuxWV 157, 159, 140 to 142, 145, 146, 149, 159 to 161.
All Walcha's recordings, including other recordings of Bach works for Archiv, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Records, were reissued in 2021 by Deutsche Grammophon to mark the 30th anniversary of Walcha's death.

Works by Walcha

Walcha's original chorales and organ works have been recorded twice. Firstly, a selection performed by Renate Meierjürgen; and then, the full 88 chorale preludes, by Wolfgang Rübsam and Delbert Disselhorst.
  • Helmut Walcha: Choralvorspiele. Renate Meierjürgen an der Orgel der Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt. Motette Ursina, 1980, Catalog No. M 1039 & MOT 10391.
  • Helmut Walcha: Chorale Preludes, vol. 1. Wolfgang Rübsam at the John Brombaug Organ Opus 35, First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois. 2-CD set. Naxos, 2012, Catalog No. 8.572910.
  • Helmut Walcha: Chorale Preludes, vol. 2. Wolfgang Rübsam at the John Brombaug Organ Opus 35, First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois. 2-CD set. Naxos, 2012, Catalog No. 8.572911.
  • Helmut Walcha: Chorale Preludes, vol. 3. Delbert Disselhorst at the John Brombaug Organ Opus 35, First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois. 2-CD set. Naxos, 2013, Catalog No. 8.572912.
  • Helmut Walcha: Chorale Preludes, vol. 4. Delbert Disselhorst at the John Brombaug Organ Opus 35, First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois. 2-CD set. Naxos, 2013, Catalog No. 8.572913.
Finally, Walcha's completion of "Contrapunctus 18 ", i.e. the last fugue of Bach's The Art of Fugue, was recorded by Walcha himself for his stereo cycle of Bach's complete organ works, and again by his former pupil George Ritchie:

Scores for transcriptions and original works

Walcha's editions of Händel's organ concertos opp. 4 & 7 (Handel)|7], as well as his organ transcriptions of Bach's "Ricercare a 6 voci" from the Musical Offering and the complete transcription for organ of the Art of Fugue, have been published by Schott Music and Edition Peters. Bach's "Ricercare a 6 voci" edition also includes an analysis.
  • G. F. Händel: Orgelkonzerte op. 4, Nos. 1–6. B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz, 1940.
  • G. F. Händel: Orgelkonzerte op. 7, Nos. 1–6. B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz, 1943.
  • J. S. Bach: „Ricercare à 6 voci“ aus dem „Musikalischen Opfer“. Übertragung für Orgel. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1964, Catalog No. EP4835.
  • J. S. Bach: „Die Kunst der Fuge“. BWV 1080. Übertragung für Orgel mit Weiterführung und Beendigung der Schlussfuge. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1967, Catalog No. EP8000.
The latter editor also published the scores of Walcha's 88 original chorale preludes, in four volumes:
  • Helmut Walcha: Choralvorspiele, Bd. 1. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1954, Catalog No. EP4850. 25 chorale preludes for organ; prelude no. 11, Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, uses the same Lutheran melody used by Bach in cantatas BWV 6 and BWV 126.
  • Helmut Walcha: Choralvorspiele, Bd. 2. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1963, Catalog No. EP4871. 20 chorale preludes for organ.
  • Helmut Walcha: Choralvorspiele, Bd. 3. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1966, Catalog No. EP5999. 24 chorale preludes for organ.
  • Helmut Walcha: Choralvorspiele, Bd. 4. Edition Peters, Frankfurt a. M., 1978, Catalog No. EP8413. 19 chorale preludes for organ + a postludium.