What Art of Fugue?

[french frank]

Or, more fully, which version do I need?

I only have it in the Koopman boxed set, but the Art of Fugue is the two-harpsichord version, played with Mrs K. I'd like the single version.

Then there's also the vexed (for some) question - what piano version would anyone recommend?

[jayne lee wilson]

Hermann Scherchen's orchestral version with the Vienna Symphony & Vienna Radio Orchestras, from the Mozartsaal in 1965.
Last seen on Millennium Classics - 2ndhand on Amazon, bit dear now...

[rauschwerk]

Then there's also the vexed (for some) question - what piano version would anyone recommend?

Charles Rosen. Incidentally, one of the fugues can be played only on two keyboards (four hands) and was so arranged by the composer.

[Pianorak]

. . . Then there's also the vexed (for some) question - what piano version would anyone recommend?

Grigory Sokolov. I'd also recommend a string quartet version, such as the Juilliard SQ. - I must admit The Art of the Fugue sounds best in almost any version, except piano. (Did I really just say that! )

[Richard Tarleton]

Grigory Sokolov. I'd also recommend a string quartet version, such as the Juilliard SQ. - I must admit The Art of the Fugue sounds best in almost any version, except piano. (Did I really just say that! )

Thanks for that - my background knowledge of the subject is confined to the later chapters of "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth, and I was going to ask for a string quartet recommendation.

[vinteuil]

for a harpsichord version, either of Davitt Moroney's recordings (harmonia mundi 1985; abrsm 2000).

for a piano version I have much enjoyed Zoltan Kocsis (philips) and, more recently, Pierre-Laurent Aimard (dg).

There are very good grounds for believing this to be a keyboard work, and specifically a harpsichord work : the notes to Gustav Leonhardt's fine recording (dhm, 1969) set out the various arguments well.

However I have also enjoyed many of the 'arrangements' for other forces - particularly the viol consorts Fretwork (harmonia mundi) and Phantasm (simax) , and Vittorio Ghielmi and friends (winter & winter

And even the Calefax Reed Quintet (dabringhaus und grimm)...

[rauschwerk]

Grigory Sokolov. I'd also recommend a string quartet version, such as the Juilliard SQ. - I must admit The Art of the Fugue sounds best in almost any version, except piano. (Did I really just say that! )

I always think that Bach might have boggled at the very idea of public performances of these pieces since (as Rosen points out), "The Art of the Fugue was meant to be studied by playing it, to have its marvels seen, heard and felt under one's fingers." If we are going to just listen to it, it seems reasonable to pick whichever medium we find the most congenial.

[Osborn]

...what piano version would anyone recommend?

I'd forget about Cds for a moment Angela Hewitt has just added A of F to her repertoire & is in Bristol on 19 October. Worth checking the programme.

[MrGongGong]

I'm quite fond of this version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAMrT5Bagw

(but it's probably only me )

[french frank]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was on the look-out for some less-than-obvious suggestions of harpsichordists. An email arrived this morning suggesting Kenneth Gilbert on Archiv. The description 'sober, analytic' sounds right for me. Unfortunately, like so many, it's no longer available.

I don't think I'd want to think beyond the solo performers at this stage but I'm happier with the Koopman than (apparently) many people are.

rauschwerk - I must sit down and study Koopman's liner notes to find out more about the different versions (I presume the four-hand versions were intended for him to play with pupils? )

Kocsis has also been mentioned off-board (and Rosen, Aimard) - I hadn't thought of him as a Bachian. Moroney - I read something which put me off, can't remember what it was ().

There's also the matter of the ending. Gotta confess: I'm a sucker for a good story and like the ending that just peters out. Followed by a few minutes of thoughtful silence

PS I see Gilbert's version can be found still ....

[french frank]

I'd forget about Cds for a moment Angela Hewitt has just added A of F to her repertoire & is in Bristol on 19 October. Worth checking the programme.

Hewitt's Bach doesn't seem to rate with some people, but I have her Goldbergs and like them a lot.

Thanks, MrGG - I didn't dislike it so it was not 3' 08" wasted. But I think I'll stick with a harpsichord version next ...

[vinteuil]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was on the look-out for some less-than-obvious suggestions of harpsichordists. An email arrived this morning suggesting Kenneth Gilbert on Archiv. The description 'sober, analytic' sounds right for me. Unfortunately, like so many, it's no longer available.

I don't think I'd want to think beyond the solo performers at this stage but I'm happier with the Koopman than (apparently) many people are.
Moroney - I read something which put me off, can't remember what it was ().

There's also the matter of the ending. Gotta confess: I'm a sucker for a good story and like the ending that just peters out. Followed by a few minutes of thoughtful silence

....

... if it's "sober and analytic" you want, Gilbert, Leonhardt, and Moroney are all excellent. The Moroney (harmonia mundi) gives you the choice of the 'petering out' ending or his own completion. I can't imagine what things you might have heard which would put you off Moroney: he is seriously scholarly and also extremely 'musical'.

Another harpsichord version which is of interest is Pieter Dirksen's reconstruction of a "first version" (ca 1742) of the work. It's on etcetera, and well worth exploring.

[umslopogaas]

I got to know this work - in so far as a non-musician could aspire to "know" such an esoteric piece - from the organ versions by Marie-Claire Alan (Erato) and Lionel Rogg (EMI). I also have an orchestral version by the Stuttgart Chamber O., conducted by Munchinger, which is much to be recommended, the different instruments clarify the various lines. I dont know a piano version, but if Glenn Gould recorded it, and he probably did, it would be self-recommending. I have a CD set in Sony's Glenn Gould edition with parts of the work, but its not complete. You get contrapunctus 1 - 9 on the organ; 1,2 and 4 on the piano; 9, 11 and 13 on the piano; 14 (unfinished) on the piano. So, actually you get quite a lot, but some bits are missing. Perhaps he just didnt like them? Or are these the ones that require two players?

[rauschwerk]

I dont know a piano version, but if Glenn Gould recorded it, and he probably did, it would be self-recommending.

Not to me!!!!

[Pianorak]

The piece was written for the Societaet der musikalischen Wissenschaften and each member (Bach, Handel, Telemann and later Mozart) had to contribute a theoretical or practical piece with the aim of developing music along the philosophical lines of Pythagoras.

Yes, I do think it was written for keyboard - but I somehow don't get it. I much prefer a string quartet version.