# New and/or Favorite Recordings of Art of Fugue/or your Fuguencycle?



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

I must have about a dozen recordings, but I'm not in love with any of them. That said, the one recording I return to over and over again is the Feltsman performance (his comes closest, for me, to a complete Glenn Gould in tenor and feeling).

What's your favorite? Maybe I'll discover something new...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I wonder if you will like this


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Okay. Lute harpsichord. Yup. I'm interested. One of my favorite instruments.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

two of my favorites


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> I must have about a dozen recordings, but I'm not in love with any of them. That said, the one recording I return to over and over again is the Feltsman performance (his comes closest, for me, to a complete Glenn Gould in tenor and feeling).
> 
> What's your favorite? Maybe I'll discover something new...


If you want a modern piano one the one which seems to go down well with people who enjoy Gould and Feltsman is this one, the CD may be hard to find but you used to be able to find the whole thing on Thierry Mechler's page on soundcloud, with listenable sound.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My favored recording is courtesy of Kenneth Gilbert on harpsichord.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> My favored recording is courtesy of Kenneth Gilbert on harpsichord.


I just wish he'd recorded more of it! It's like my most favourite fugues aren't there.

By the way I listened to Walter Riemer the other day. He's very very good! What a shame he didn't record more. That's one that VTpoet should definitely try, it's findable


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> I wonder if you will like this
> 
> View attachment 144784


I continue to listen to it but I'm afraid that Rübsam's mannered and over-the-top rubato is enough to drive me to drink.

*Sigh.*


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> I just wish he'd recorded more of it! It's like my most favourite fugues aren't there.
> 
> By the way I listened to Walter Riemer the other day. He's very very good! What a shame he didn't record more. That's one that VTpoet should definitely try, it's findable
> 
> View attachment 144809


I see that one sold on ebay a while back. Still looking.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> I continue to listen to it but I'm afraid that Rübsam's mannered and over-the-top rubato is enough to drive me to drink.
> 
> *Sigh.*


 If you forget all the other interpretations then Rübsam sounds totally natural, at least that's how I feel about it now. In my opinion you're wrong to use a pejorative like _mannered_, though it is clearly unique and challenging. I think in that sense it's very well done, all that rubato is organic, all that staggering of the voices sounds as fluid as a madrigal by Marenzio. This is especially impressive in the second CD, when the fugues start to get complicated.


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## hoodjem (Feb 23, 2019)

Karl Ristenpart.
Saar Chamber Orchestra.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> If you forget all the other interpretations then Rübsam sounds totally natural, at least that's how I feel about it now. In my opinion you're wrong to use a pejorative like _mannered_, though it is clearly unique and challenging. I think in that sense it's very well done, all that rubato is organic, all that staggering of the voices sounds as fluid as a madrigal by Marenzio. This is especially impressive in the second CD, when the fugues start to get complicated.


I like it enough to give it a third and fourth chance. Maybe I'll come around.


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## SearsPoncho (Sep 23, 2020)

Evgeni Koroliov (Piano).

The back cover of the cd has this quote from Gyorgy Ligeti:

"...but if I am allowed only one musical work on my desert island, then I should choose Koroliov's Bach, because forsaken, starving, and dying of thirst, I would listen to it right up to my last breath."

That's a pretty solid recommendation, eh? I don't know if I would go that far, but if you like it on piano, it's a very good choice.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

T. Koopman and T. Mathot on harpsichord

I favor Emerson Quartet for the canons specifically.

Disappointing recordings tend to be most orchestral versions and a recording I have for _recorder quartet._ Organs are also not recommended for following the more complex fugues, but they are powerful.


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## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

No words honestly for this. It was immoral for Gould not to have recorded a full piano version.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> If you want a modern piano one the one which seems to go down well with people who enjoy Gould and Feltsman is this one, the CD may be hard to find but you used to be able to find the whole thing on Thierry Mechler's page on soundcloud, with listenable sound.
> 
> View attachment 144807


here they are


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Luchesi said:


> here they are


This is Mechler's organ recording. Mandryka meant his piano recording.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

Gustav Leonhardt's recordings from 1969 - I know there's no such thing as a definitive version, but this is my absolute top pick.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Simplicissimus said:


> Gustav Leonhardt's recordings from 1969 - I know there's no such thing as a definitive version, but this is my absolute top pick.
> 
> View attachment 144972


Hey. I have that recording. It's been ages since I've listened to it. I'm going to pop it into the CD player right now.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

premont said:


> This is Mechler's organ recording. Mandryka meant his piano recording.


As it happens I listened to it again and ended up feeling that for me this music just doesn't work on a modern piano. I don't like the sound of the instrument but it's not just that: I can tolerate Feldman or Stockhausen on a modern piano more easily than Art of Fugue, for some reason.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Mandryka said:


> As it happens I listened to it again and ended up feeling that for me this music just doesn't work on a modern piano. I don't like the sound of the instrument but it's not just that: I can tolerate Feldman or Stockhausen on a modern piano more easily than Art of Fugue, for some reason.


With the exception of Gould and Feltsman, I'm inclined to agree with you. I think part of the problem is that I'd like to hear the various voices voiced by different instruments. This may be the reason I'm also not particularly taken with all these recordings that are on the organ, string quartets, saxophone quartets, recorder quartets, guitar quartets, etc...

Apart from Gould, Musica Antiqua Köln's chamber recording is one of my favorites. I'd love to see another chamber music group perform these pieces (if they haven't already and I just don't know about it).


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> As it happens I listened to it again and ended up feeling that for me this music just doesn't work on a modern piano. I don't like the sound of the instrument but it's not just that: I can tolerate Feldman or Stockhausen on a modern piano more easily than Art of Fugue, for some reason.


Of WTC, Goldberg Variations, and Art of Fugue, I tolerate modern piano the least well with Art of Fugue. I definitely prefer harpsichord for all of them, but I can enjoy some piano performances of WTC and especially of the Goldberg Variations. Art of Fugue is somewhat OK for me on organ, at least Alain's performance, but it just seems to require more clarity or less complex timbre than organs can produce.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Simplicissimus said:


> but it just seems to require more clarity or less complex timbre than organs can produce.


Try Walcha. He really does play it for clarity and the Flentrop restored Alkmaar organ is as clean as a whistle.

ascksakcawsc


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

ac,sa/cmsa/.cmas


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