gecko wrote:Nobody would play a prelude and fugue all the way through without change of registration.
Nope ! But we can often hear that way !
I can give you many recordings on Youtube, from professional organists...
That are I call 'fundamentalists' !
But other organists, professional too, change the registration between a P&F, and also switch keyboards during the Fuga.
But the evidence is that, with a very few exceptions, preludes and fugues were indeed played with a single registration each, some kind of plenum. Note that "plenum" here is not a single registration but rather a continuum ranging from just an 8' principal up through all the principals + mixtures and maybe reeds (what we usually think of as "plenum").
Too often, players switch manuals or registrations when Bach switches textures, but that just obscures what Bach wrote.
Alright, you make a
Plenum, but I don't see the problem if you leave it during a moment, i don't see any
treason against Bach writing...
With french baroque pieces, you've got
Plenums too, and they are cut by solo.
The changes of keyboard create different sound plans, like in Bach Concerti, I do not see the problem of switching keyboard when the piece suitables for different sound plans, that is, in my opinion, an obviousness.
A long fuga with the same registration all the time, and/or with the same sound plan, end up making tiring.
Anyway, I don't follow some so-called baroque 'laws', even about the phrasing.
Personnaly, I listen to long Fugas when I don't hear the same sound all the time, so I play them like that too, I switch keyboards when I feel it is possible and appropriate.
Just my opinion !