All I can add to this music is WOW! I too wish Virgil Fox was alive today, I miss his work.

This was Virgil Fox's personal high-end organ, with which he traveled the country and internationally to give concerts. It was phenomenal at the time, and the concerts were amazing. Give a listen to his ALBUM "Virgil Fox: Heavy Organ" (recorded live at Winterland in San Francisco) to hear a good representation of what this sounded like in reality. The audio on this You Tube video is as bad as listening to AM radio from a thousand miles away by comparison.

I've been listening to this music since I was born and love it. This is the first time I've seen the master perform it and I'm speechless...

The good Mr. Fox plays Bach the way that it was intended. He rarely misses a note.

@ShandyHall In reviewing notes,I see you lamenting the loss of the Wolf Trapp Heavy Organ Concerts that "blew you away". Well me too and I confess twice we darn near were BLOWN AWAY by tornadic force winds from summer storms that came up. But we both loved those concerts and great,warm appreciative audiences. They said we drew the largest audiences of any one up to that time,,many thousands.WOW, I miss them and I miss Virgil Fox. Time has not healed the pain of loss for us all.

A master at his craft. I miss him.

He always liked to show off and he nailed it..............

Listen through the fog of the recording. This organ sounds very good if you listen with the ears that would be in the room. I love at about 6:52 where he kicks in the 32ft. Also, this is the video to point to when people start complaining about Virgil's theatrics. This is good recital playing!

There are some organist that can't maximize an electric organ to its full potential and you can tell the difference. This master of the king of instruments does one of the greatest jobs of masking the fact that this isn't a traditional organ

@aafdirector Like the Tuna Commercial said "Sorry Charlie" I say,,sorry charlie to you. Virgil loved his Allen, It was a joy to me just participating in its installations and experiencing its magnificent possibilities. Contrary sir,,"Black Beauty" was rented by him and replaced by Virgil ASAP. The technicians that created it for him from Allen were in my book artists in their own rite and thus Virgil finished his life playing the instruemnt he loved.

@DavidSnyderLumierist David, thank you for this information. It is great to hear from the person who was very much involved.

@AAFDirectors The background noise is from the recording, not the Allen Organ. That Allen sounded fantastic and was the best thing out there in the late '70's. I remember well the first time I heard it at Wolf Trap. I was blown away with it. How I miss those Wolf Trap concerts,

@DrBeetleBubba Actually, the organ in the Heavy Organ recording at Winterland was the 3 manual Rodgers "Black Beauty", not the 4 manual Allen. And yes, the Allen was a wonderful instrument!!!!!!

Even as a guitarist i love that !!1 CHEERS

Wonderful!

@ShandyHall I obviously was misinformed on this - from years past - and now sit corrected! Thanks for setting the record straight!

@OrganistGreg So do I my friend. Blessings to you

@bombarde1701 Virgil never tried to buy the Rogers he rented and never went back to them after he purchased his own instruemnt which he loved from Allen. I know,,I was there through it all.

if virgil would see the digital organs today i think he would be amazed....the only other organist that plays like virgil is Felix Hell

@SadisticMagician54 Yeah, I hate the hum but it was part of the recording. At least you get a flavor of a live Virgil concert.

@aafdirector That is the first I ever heard of this. Now, I have heard disparaging things about the Rodgers Royal V. I only heard him play that one once.

Virgil Fos died October 5th, 1980 in Florida.

I had the privilege of attending a Fox recital in Rochester NY. His commentary before the piece was enlightening. He said the opening was Bach calling out to God to get his attention. He further described the last 4 chords as spelling out B-A-C-H, the last chord a variation of an "enhanced" G chord to hypothetically make an "H" chord. I am not an organist but can anyone confirm this?

Saw this tour in 1970 in Portland OR, believe me the interference wasn't there, and you would have thought you were listening to a Flentrop tracker pipe organ!

Hard to tell with the low quality audio, but it does seem to me Allen had a much better sound than Rodgers in that era.

I don't think any of us in the 21st Century can ever figure out what Bach would have liked or not. No one alive for well over a hundred and fifty years ever knew him. We put our own interpretations as to what he would have liked or not have liked. We should not speak for others.

@ShandyHall I suspect the humming that ruins the video application is due to poor grounding in the video devise used by the person putting it out.I wish they had taken time to do it right,,but hey,,thanks anyway

Actually Virgil Fox died October 25th 1980.

No, This is not Bach. This is Virgil Fox.

@19shea85 I hate that humming sound too. It seems to be in the recording. I know it did not come from the organ.

The drone is in the recording, not the organ. Where did you hear he went back to Rodgers? That is news to me.

what ever happened to E Powers Biggs?

Mmmm.... demasiado largas las semicorcheas en las cuales cae luego del descenso (Re) en los primeros 2 compases. Eso hace a mi juicio que la pieza pierda estilo (tipo tenebroso).

He died in 1977. BUT if you want to have some fun go to triple w (dot) epowerbiggs (dot) com. (KZfaq won't let you post links). Of course substitute (.) for (dot). I don't know who did it but it is a hoot.

In the first place, the recording quality is horrible and no way represents what the instrument sounded like in person.

Rodgers is much better!

This really is a pretty terrible organ, but I've heard much worse, sadly. You know it's a great musician when the poor quality of the organ goes un-noticed because of impeccable artistry. Also, does anyone know what that annoying humming sound in the background is?

Virgil Fox era abbastanza incompetente in fatto di musica barocca. Le sue registrazioni sono come macabre curiosità da non seguire come esempio.

Cameron Carpenter is better.