Was Kunst

The Art of Fugue or 'complete practical fugal work', as C. P. E. Bach described his father's giant contrapuntal achievement, is well represented in the current recording catalogue. The approaches to it vary considerably with performances on solo keyboard—harpsichord and organ—and mixed ensembles with markedly different shades of instrument colour. Varied too, is the sequence in which the performers play the fugal parts which comprise the whole. Some complete the final fugue, some do not; some find a place for all the pieces included in the posthumous original edition of 1751, others have given reasons for omitting those which seem not to play a directly relevant part in Bach's scheme. Kenneth Gilbert leads us down another fascinating path his performance on a solo harpsichord follows not the 1751 printed edition but Bach's own autograph material differing from the other both in content and layout.

Hungary’s prize-winning Keller Quartet, whose account of mentor György Kurtág’s Musik für Streichinstrumente received the highest praise internationally, now focuses upon baroque music with a revelatory performance of Bach’s The Art of Fugue "The Keller Quartet take an experimental approach to Bach", writes Hans Klaus Jungheinrich, "inclining less to long lines than to ‘respiratory’ phrasing." The music breathes, yes, and the Keller Quartet’s interpretation of Die Kunst der Fuge will be one of the most talked-about Bach performances of the year.

During the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, death was part of everyday life. The ensemble il capriccio and the countertenor Franz Vitzthum offer the Thomaskantor's musical perspective on life and death on their new GENUIN CD. The texts of the recorded arias and chorale arrangements by Bach deal with death, eternity and the promise of eternal life. The musicians juxtapose the works, some of which have been carefully arranged, with selected sections from the Art of Fugue. The result is an artistic and moving musical tapestry, interpreted by Franz Vitzthum and the ensemble il capriccio with intensity and sensitivity.

The Art of Fugue was J.S. Bach's final composition which many justifiably regard as the apotheosis of his legacy. This arrangement by the Musica Antiqua Koln is one of the most austere chamber versions on CD with nearly half of the movements interspersed evenly throughout the performance played by only one or two instrumentalists.

The Amsterdam Bach Soloists comprise an ensemble of ten or so musicians. They play modern instruments but base their musical approach on ''an undogmatic use of authentic interpreting practice, so that the rich potentialities of the modern instruments can be combined with the baroque way of performing, which is in keeping with the accomplishments of Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Concertgebouw Orchestra''. Most of the players are, in fact, drawn from the Concertgebouw, though there are some from Frans Bruggen's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Nowadays Bach's didactic but very beautiful The Art of Fugue, is widely regarded as a work for solo harpsichord. Bach himself left no precise indication concerning instrumentation but the music was engraved in open score which places each individual voice or strand of the texture on a separate stave. This practice was not uncommon in contrapuntal keyboard works and is one of several features pointing towards the solo harpsichord as being Bach's most likely intention.