# Art of Fugue appreciation/discussion



## FrankieP (Aug 24, 2011)

So, what do you guys think about this Bach masterpiece? Fugues and Canons and just absolutely incredible writing throughout, what more could one want?!

Do you have any favourite orchestrations/arrangements of it?
I love the string quartet recordings, also this, which is Neville Marriner and Academy of St Martin in the Fields (i think it's Marriner's own orchestration): 





Also Barshai's - which he worked on for 44 years, right up to his death. I haven't heard all of it yet but it's all readily available on Youtube etc...

Also, has anyone read 'An Equal Music' by Vikram Seth? That's what first introduced me to this amazing piece.

Please discuss, share ideas etc


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

I've never found the _Art of Fugue_ all that difficult to get into. The harmonic style is amazing.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Two words: Glenn Gould.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

First off, I find Gould's playing sounds inconsistent on most things and erratic, his great technique might allow these two things to be forgiven, if it weren't for the humming. I respect the fact he is so popular here, but his playing style is not my cup of tea. So I personally wouldn't recommend him. Just my 2 cents.

I'll just add that while I agree I haven't found the Art of Fugue too hard to get into, I still haven't heard a recording I think is definitive (or even close). I own the one pictured in the OP and I haven't listened to it in ages.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

I really like Fretworks Art of Fugue performed on Viols for an original take on this work :










I have a few different versions of AoF that I enjoy - I think it works best performed on Organ though!


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

tdc said:


> First off, I find Gould's playing sounds inconsistent on most things and erratic, his great technique might allow these two things to be forgiven, if it weren't for the humming. I respect the fact he is so popular here, but his playing style is not my cup of tea. So I personally wouldn't recommend him. Just my 2 cents.
> 
> I'll just add that while I agree I haven't found the Art of Fugue too hard to get into, I still haven't heard a recording I think is definitive (or even close). I own the one pictured in the OP and I haven't listened to it in ages.


Inconsistent? Perhaps behind an organ but certainly not on the piano. If anything, that is what sets Glenn apart from every mere mortal ever...the fact that he had no inconsistency whatsoever in his playing and no cessation at all in tempo. Geez, almost every work I hear that he has recorded...when I hear it done by anyone else, the notes are all over the place and the tempo is up and down and all around and some phrasing and passages don't even make sense.

If it ain't your cup of tea, you must like the .99 cent cans of Arizona or Peace Tea because Gould is fine Roibos or Select Earl Grey all the way...and _that_ is most certainly my cup.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

tdc said:


> First off, I find Gould's playing sounds inconsistent on most things and erratic, his great technique might allow these two things to be forgiven, if it weren't for the humming. I respect the fact he is so popular here, but his playing style is not my cup of tea. So I personally wouldn't recommend him. Just my 2 cents.
> 
> I'll just add that while I agree I haven't found the Art of Fugue too hard to get into, I still haven't heard a recording I think is definitive (or even close). I own the one pictured in the OP and I haven't listened to it in ages.


Strange. It seemed to me that most melomanes criticized Gould for being too systematic to the point that they call him robotic or whatever (which is nonsense, by the way). But erratic and inconsistent--_what_?

Also, I'm usually too busy minding my own humming to worry about Gould's.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Well, I think it goes both ways, and I can kind of see what tdc is getting at. In free-moving works (introductions, toccatas, fantasias, etc.), Gould sometimes uses excessive rubato. I personally quite like it, but here is a random example: 



. Notice his idiosyncratic way of taking the runs in the first part. It's completely different from the way I performed this piece a couple years back.

Gould is not going to be _everyone's_ cup of tea, and that's fine. There's Perahia, Hewitt, Schiff, Feltsman, Leonhardt, etc. and if you want to go further back Fischer, Yudina, Richter, Gulda, Tureck, Landowska, Nikolayeva and a whole lot of others.

Getting back on topic, I don't feel that the piano is necessarily the best instrument for Die Kunst der Fuge, even if it was intended for it. The chamber renditions out there, for example the one Conor posted, are equally, if not more, compelling. There are other great piano recordings besides Gould too, though I haven't heard them. Nikolayeva is one.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Have the 1987 Juilliard SQ recording, and it's enough for me.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

There is a definitive recording approved by HarpsichordConcerto  . This one pictured below. They played it such that individual lines are more apparent than solo keyboard versions (which I also have, played on the harpsichord), and with a bit of interpretative imagination to make this didactic piece sound like it was intended for concerto performance. Hesperion XX directed by Jordi Savall (on period instruments). Seriously, this one kills all others.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> There is a definitive recording approved by HarpsichordConcerto  . This one pictured below. They played it such that individual lines are more apparent than solo keyboard versions (which I also have, played on the harpsichord), and with a bit of interpretative imagination to make this didactic piece sound like it was intended for concerto performance. Hesperion XX directed by Jordi Savall (on period instruments). Seriously, this one kills all others.


Bet you've never heard Go(ul)d Almighty play this, have you?


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Dodecaplex said:


> Bet you've never heard Go(ul)d Almighty play this, have you?


I have. It was nice. You could recommend that version if someone is seeking a piano version. I don't own a copy of it but I remember his very fluid technique when I heard it on radio before.


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## Llyranor (Dec 20, 2010)

My favorite version is for string orchestra.





I also have a version with the Emerson SQ, and Glenn Gould (not a fan of the organ ones).

I really like this work. It's just wonderful. The way the music just stops at contrapunctus XIV sends shivers down my spine.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

_The Art of Fugue_ is one of those works (and there are a number of such works by Bach) that I have ended up in getting multiple recordings of. In part, as with a number of Bach's works, there is not clear instrumentation spelled out in the scoring and so I am open to performance on any number of instruments.

I quite like Glenn Gould myself. If he is not the last word on Bach, he is always one of the essential voices. I'm quite is agreement with HC with regard to the Jordi Savall recording. I have long loved Savall's efforts with "early music" but never really looked to him for Bach (or Handel, for that matter) until quite recently. Everything I have heard has absolutely blown me away.

Other favorite recordings include:










The great Helmut Walcha was my first exposure to this divine work. I used to sit in the dark as a teenager absolutely mesmerized by the almost mathematical sounds of Bach's music. The architectural structure of the music overwhelmed me like a Gothic Cathedral, and I began to understand the medieval concept of the "music of the spheres".










Marriner's recording was the first to introduce me to the possibility of a variety of instrumental voices applied to this work.










Where Handel was a truly theatrical composer... composing operas for large sophisticated audiences in London, Bach, I have begun to recognize over time, was a master of chamber-like music. His cantatas, frequently employ a small group of instruments and vocalists with the exception of the great choruses. As such, the string quartet in no way seems out of place with this music.










As Conor71 has already suggested, Fretwork's approach to this work on viols is quite unique... and I quite like it as well.



















These last two recordings are even more original in their take upon Bach's masterwork. The Loeki Stardust Quartet plays the work upon a series of recorders of different sizes and resonances. The Calefax Reed Quintet perform the work upon oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon bringing a wholly unique range of colors to the work.


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## Amfibius (Jul 19, 2006)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> I have. It was nice. You could recommend that version if someone is seeking a piano version. I don't own a copy of it but I remember his very fluid technique when I heard it on radio before.


If I am not mistaken, the only version of Glenn Gould's _Art of Fugue_ is on the organ? Apart from the last few Contrapuncti, I mean.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Amfibius said:


> If I am not mistaken, the only version of Glenn Gould's _Art of Fugue_ is on the organ? Apart from the last few Contrapuncti, I mean.


You know, Fibi, I've been thinking the same thing! I keep trying to hear him play it on the piano but the only recordings I have are of him playing it on organ; and pretty darned well at that. So,...those of you who have the piano version,...please share


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

my favorite compositions by Bach are the ones where he really focuses on his contrapuntal skills. So I love the art of fugue! Along with the musical offering and the WTC.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

I have the Neville Marriner recording and the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet arrangement for Recorder Quartet. I particularly like the Marriner for its variety. It was arranged by Marriner and Andrew Davis (formerly conductor of the BBC Symphony sand now music director of Chicago Lyric Opera). Each Fugue is given as deemed appropriate to a string quartet, full orchestra, solo harpsichord or organ. The organ played by Davis.

I also have an arrangement by Canadian Brass, a solo harpsichord performance by Gustav Leonhardt and an organ performance by Kei Koito on the 1748 Dom Bedos instrument in l'eglise Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Bach + GG = this awesome video:


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