The work: It's difficult to overstate the significance of the organ in Bach's life. He came from a family of organists, and the instrument formed the basis for his early musical training. Every one of his professional posts involved playing the organ, some of his greatest displays of improvisatory genius were performed at its keyboard. His organ works encompass a wide variety of musical genres; from the short chorale preludes, based on the hymns sung in a Lutheran service, to the more virtuosic preludes and toccatas - flamboyant showpieces that were usually followed by the complex, imitative form that most fascinated Bach, the fugue. The performance: This excellent set makes the perfect entry point into Bach's organ music. It includes practically all the preludes and fugues from Bach's early Weimar period, plus other masterpieces recorded on four different Baroque organs. Ton Koopman plays with such invention and flair that even old warhorses like the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor sound fresh. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/dec/16/jsbach.classicalmusicandopera