Proms Saturday Matinee 1 (21.7.12): Bach – The Art of Fugue

[Bryn]

I seem to recall that such a brass-arrangement exists already, but i cannot remember where I've seen it.
I certainly haven't heard it, as I haven't attended a concert with a "Brass".-KdF and it isn't in my collection (A broadcast would have resulted in an off-air recording, and no CD of such an arrangement).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0b2yv2vgVM

I think the rest is linked to there.



That's available for £4.37, or thereabouts, including p&p via amazon.co.uk

Then there's http://pittsburghsymphonyorchestra.b...symphony-brass

[Roehre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0b2yv2vgVM

I think the rest is lined to there.

Thanks Bryn

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I hope to make an arrangment of this for brass(as in brass band instrumentation, will sound less harsh than with orchestral brass).

Now that I would like to hear.

[bluestateprommer]

Really a must for Bach-admirers and -fans IMO. Lovely and inspiring performance. Well and delicately orchestrated (I like that trumpet- and not only in that final chorale).

For me the only bit negative point (as "only" a listener) is, that the manyfold long pauses between the movements, including a more than average (re-)tuning, meant that the "drive" was a bit taken out of the music (which therefore lasted more than 95 minutes - a record among KdF-performances if these pauses are not taken into consideration).
But compared to the music and the quality of its performance really only a minor point.

The presentation was examplary ..... Strongly recommended

Just heard this performance of JSB's KdF via iPlayer, and I can only heartily add to the high praise. The only quibble from me is the same as Roehre's about several of the protracted pauses between sections, but I also agree that this is easily forgiven for such a splendid performance. Well worth repeat listenings, although I unfortunately won't have time for it.

The only time that I heard KdF live was in a church in Copenhagen back in 1998, where the organist concluded the final fugue in mid-air. It would have been interesting if Mahan Esfahani had chosen one of the conjectural completions, such as by Donald Francis Tovey. It was a bit of a jolt to hear the imposed conclusion of the chorale "Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit", given its contrast with the rest of the work. But it's a small price to pay.

[edashtav]

Lovely and inspiring performance. Well and delicately orchestrated (I like that trumpet- and not only in that final chorale).

Delicately orchestrated or delicately played by AMM. Roehre? The quality of modern instrumental players never ceases to amaze me. Here's a piece of "pure" music untrammelled by the needs of instruments and players, yet every line was projected as if it fitted the player and his instrument like a glove. Stunning stuff. And the Radio 3 engineers did their job in a marvellous, and, therefore, understated manner. Just one worry, I found the Mahan Estafani and his harpsichord a little recessed, at times. His playing had great verve and rhythmic vitality but didn't always contribute as an equal.

That's a quibble for this was a lucid and masterful account of a tasteful arrangement that clarified Bach textures through gentle added instrumental colour.

[heliocentric]

The Art of Fugue was probably never performed in Bach's time

I find it hard to believe that Bach, as the archetypal practical musician, would have written all that music and then never played it, especially given that almost all of it fits keyboard instruments so well (and harpsichord rather than organ, according to Leonhardt) and the fact that CPE Bach's advertisement for the first edition in 1751 specifically mentions that it was "arranged for use at the harpsichord or organ". The open-score notation used by Bach was already old-fashioned in the 1740s but was common in the 17th century, besides which the ranges of the voices don't correspond to instruments in use during Bach's time. The idea of it as a timeless theoretical construction seems to me a later gloss on the work added by commentators who probably didn't know their 17th century contrapuntal keyboard music (Frescobaldi, Scheidt, Froberger etc.).

Having said that I do have a preference to hear it played by multiple instruments, so that the different fugal techniques used by Bach are more clearly projected - to my 21st century ears and sensibilities anyway.

(edit: I was just thinking now would be a good time to listen to the programme but I'm a whole day too late... must keep a better eye on the schedule...)

[vinteuil]

... almost all of it fits keyboard instruments so well (and harpsichord rather than organ, according to Leonhardt)

.

Yes - I have always been convinced by Leonhardt's detailed demonstration that the fact that it all (with specific explainable exceptions for the two mirror fugues) fits under the fingers of one harpsichordist. And the single harpsichord version very much remains my preferred way of experiencing this.

But it is a work that can provide much joy with a range of instrumental approaches. I did enjoy Mahan Esfahani and his colleagues here.

I'm not sure the tacking on of the irrelevant chorale at the end to 'tidy things up' makes much sense. I think I wd prefer either having it left hanging in the air unfinished - or, as Davitt Moroney, following Gregory Butler, demonstrated - rounding it off with the necessary thirty bars ( based on the only two usable statements of the final combination of all four themes).

[heliocentric]

either having it left hanging in the air unfinished - or, as Davitt Moroney, following Gregory Butler, demonstrated - rounding it off with the necessary thirty bars (based on the only two usable statements of the final combination of all four themes).

Agreed.

[Bryn]

Delicately orchestrated or delicately played by AMM.

That would be the leading free improvising duo if Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury, eh?

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