E. Power Biggs with Familiar Bach

I've had an occasional series of recordings by organist Virgil Fox going on for some time. Today we have a contrasting approach to the instrument from Fox's great mid-century rival, E. Power Biggs.

Fox was known for flamboyance; Biggs for a more measured, even chaste approach. That is not to say his work is dull - far from it, and this mellifluous program of familiar J. S. Bach items is evidence.

Biggs is accompanied by the Columbia Chamber Orchestra conducted by Richard Burgin, in a set taped May 24, 1951 in Boston's Symphony Hall. Given that Burgin was assistant conductor and concertmaster of the Boston Symphony at the time, and that all but one of the named soloists were members of the ensemble, it seems likely that the "Columbia Chamber Orchestra" was at least in part made up of BSO members.

Harrison and Biggs meet with Albert Schweitzer during the build of the Aeolian-Skinner destined for Symphony Hall

Biggs performs on the G. Donald Harrison-designed Aeolian-Skinner organ, which had been installed in Symphony Hall a few years previously. Columbia began recording him on that organ almost as soon as it was available.

The soloists on the LP are as follows:

• Roger Voisin, Marcel LaFosse - trumpets
• Phillip Kaplan, Lois Schaefer - flutes (Schaefer was not then a BSO member, although she joined much later on)
• Alfred Krips - violin

First cover

The transfer, the result of a request on another site, is from a nice pressing dating from later in the 1950s, with the modernized cover shown above. (The first cover is at left.) The download includes scans of the covers, as always, and discographical information from Michael Gray's site.