Helmut Walcha (1907-1991) was a German organist and harpsichordist, one of the most important Bach keyboard interpreters of the twentieth century. Blind from adolescence, he built a formidable career as performer and teacher.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in Bach’s Orgel-Büchlein, recorded in 1950 and 1952.

Walcha’s Bach was clear, disciplined and architecturally lucid, with an organist’s understanding of structure and a deeply inward command of contrapuntal motion.

His page is essential. Walcha makes the organ loft feel like a mind thinking in pillars of sound.