Bach complete Organ Works mp3 Edition
[Nimbus NI 1721, TT 31 hours]

This double-box set is a landmark in recorded music history to follow the ground breaking Nimbus release of all Haydn's symphonies on 8 mp3 CDs.

Quickly overcoming scepticism in some quarters, that release proved so successful commercially that this follows as its natural successor, and more in the same format are scheduled.

Kevin Bowyer has recorded about 50 CDs for Nimbus. His 1991-2001 Bach recordings at Odense (released on CD between 1992-2004) are both scholarly and expressive, representing for the 1990s what Peter Hurford's recordings had been for the 1970s.

The carefully chosen Marcussen Organ at Odense is "a masterpiece - - in an acoustic alive and responsive - radiant, vibrant and warm." [Kevin Bowyer]

Received the day before, a breakfast sampling was an inspiring start to Easter Sunday. The discs play easily on my computer and DVD player and the MP3 320kbps format ensures very high quality sound to go with storage convenience and unmatchable price.

The Nimbus documentation is comprehensive, with an introductory essay by Bowyer in the insert booklet. A compilation of the original notes by Wilfrid Mellers, Jonathan Baxendale and Kevin Bowyer is included on Disc No 8 in a 42,000 words pdf file, together with 3-way listing by track No, title and BMV numbers, all organised for easy reading on the computer at your preferred print size, or for printing out.

Click to see my review of Volume 12 of the original release.

Peter Grahame Woolf