For all of you who were waiting for the CDs and DVDs of my Bach Great Eighteen Chorales, the wait is no more! One caveat — these are recordings of the live concerts — and there is some audience noise even though at the time I thought the audience was especially quiet. Also since it was not a studio session in which one can do multiple “takes” in order to have a perfect performance, there are a couple of, ahem, notes which did not appear on Bach’s manuscript! Thankfully, these were few and far between!

I have to be comforted, though, by the words of Dr. Noa Kageyama, whose blog The Bulletproof Musician, says: If audiences wanted technical perfection, they would stay at home and listen to recordings with higher audio fidelity and expertly engineered audio perfection. They could avoid the hassle of dressing up, fighting through traffic, finding parking, paying for tickets, waiting in line, sitting in an uncomfortable seat that keeps squeaking, squished between people wearing too much perfume, waiting in lines to go to the bathroom, squinting to see the performers, sitting through a piece they don’t want to hear, being stuck in a “dead spot” in the hall, etc.

As my husband, Carl, told me, “This is the real deal! It’s not artificial!”

If you live in Honolulu or environs, the CDs and DVDs will be available for pickup at the installation Evensong for the American Guild of Organists, this Sunday, September 22nd at 5:30 pm, at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. If you’d rather have the CD or DVD mailed to you, please use the form at this link:

http://ionianarts.com/Bach%2527s-Great-Eighteen-Chorales.php

The two concerts fit on 2 discs — the two-CD set and the two-DVD set are the same price, $25, plus the cost of shipping. In Hawaii, the governor gets his due — add 4.712% general excise tax.

Thanks so much in advance for supporting this project!