What Art of Fugue?

[euthynicus]

I'm quite fond of this version

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

(but it's probably only me )

No - I enjoyed it too, but only the once I think! I used to be more flexible in sympathy for widely varying tempi and articulations than I am at present. Now only Scherchen really cuts it for a large-scale arrangement, both in terms of number of instruments and breadth of phrasing - though again I am more drawn these days to the comparatively austere Beromunster recording on Tahra than the Westminster set, which feels a little studio-bound in comparison (and the Toronto set is too poorly played to endure more than once). Milan Munclinger and Ars Rediviva offer a slightly more expressive alternative to the bright and breezy Marriner, if that scale of things is to your taste, and although Ristenpart is too slow for me now, he does use choirs of wind and strings with great discretion (hear Heribert Breuer on Arte Nova for the approach taken to technicolor extremes); and I keep going back to Rogg for an organ version, with Fouccroulle also well worth hearing, less hobbled by the particular colours of the instrument than M-C Alain.

There are so many wonderful versions, and an awful lot whose instrumental or internal eccentricities offer initial appeal and quickly pall. Just because one can play The Art of Fugue on a kazoo orchestra doesn't mean one should. Anyone really curious should still try to get Moroney's second recording, published by the ABRSM with Richard Jones's edition of the score: considerably richer in recording quality and abundant, vocally shaped delight in intricacy. But yes, when all's said and done, it's Rosen for me too!

[Beresford]

Interesting comments - first you have to choose between keyboard or instruments. Vigneron (organ and brass) is dignified and committed in the last unfinished fugue, and I like the clarity of Tachezi on the organ, although listening to the organ always feels like a duty rather than a pleasure. I like Joanna Macgregor on piano - not the most accurate, but very passionate in this most passionate music.
I am trying to find a version for "broken consort", mixed preferably baroque instruments, one to a part, that isn't dominated by the violin. I believe Rachel Podger hopes to produce one. We will see.

[Thropplenoggin]

I'm the only one on this board who seems to like Koroliov. He is excellent in The Art of Fuge. Here he is playing the first four contrapuncti. Watch carefully - his playing is so fluid that his hands don't even seem to move!*

Tatiana Nikolayeve offers a slower, more considered or 'romantic' view.

*I shall continuing promulgating this joke until somebody other than myself laughs.

[Franzl01]

Sorry to be so late coming to this party, but I have a CD of 'The Art' that I treasure, and others might care to investigate it.
It is played by Gavin Black and George Hazelrigg on two harpsichords - a Keith Hill of 1978 and a Philip Tyre of 1988 - and it gives me a feeling of joy every time I listen to it, which is about once every two or three months. I know that the piece is an 'academic exercise', but these two players just sound as if they are enjoying it - and consequently so do I.
There is a link 'for more information' - www.theartofthefugue.com

[french frank]

Thanks for that link, Franzl01, which led to Gavin Black's (pdf) essay on the work.