The Art of Fugue BWV 1080

[James]

Hey folks, I'm looking for a version of this work on disc played on the harpsichord (or plucked kbd) with the right sound & recording, any suggestions?

[Don]

I don't know what you mean by "right sound and recording".

[Brian]

Well, I only own (and have only ever owned) one recording of the Art of Fugue, but it is of a harpsichord and has a very, very beautiful tone indeed. It features harpsichordist Sebastien Guillot and was only recorded last year, I think. Elsewhere on the forum I've described it as this: "It feels like a cold winter day ... a fire in the fireplace, snow pattering against the windows, and you've just stepped in from the mush and are peeling off your hat and mittens ... hot cocoa beckons ..."

I will, however, bow to the recommendations of other listeners who know the piece better, as their picks will certainly be from a position of somewhat greater authority.

[Don]

Well, I only own (and have only ever owned) one recording of the Art of Fugue, but it is of a harpsichord and has a very, very beautiful tone indeed. It features harpsichordist Sebastien Guillot and was only recorded last year, I think. Elsewhere on the forum I've described it as this: "It feels like a cold winter day ... a fire in the fireplace, snow pattering against the windows, and you've just stepped in from the mush and are peeling off your hat and mittens ... hot cocoa beckons ..."

I will, however, bow to the recommendations of other listeners who know the piece better, as their picks will certainly be from a position of somewhat greater authority.

Although the Guillot is a fine performance, I do think there are better ones to be had:

Robert Hill/Hanssler
Kenneth Gilbert/Archiv
Gustav Leonhardt/Vanguard
Davitt Moroney/Harmonia Mundi

Gilbert's my favorite, but I must caution that he doesn't include the last unfinished fugue.

[Que]

Although the Guillot is a fine performance, I do think there are better ones to be had:

Robert Hill/Hanssler

Another vote for Robert Hill - which is my favourite.



Q

[bwv 1080]

Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Koln - not all on Harpsichord, some is string quartet, but its my favorite recording.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Coming down the pipe from DG:

[Brian]

Coming down the pipe from DG:

That looks like Star Trek.  Seriously.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

That looks like Star Trek.  Seriously.

As in Mr. Sulu?

[bassio]

Coming down the pipe from DG:

Wow. I hope it will be a good one.

I stand by the Sokolov in the piano versions.

[prémont]

I stand by the Sokolov in the piano versions.

Which other piano-versions have you actually heard?

[bassio]

Which other piano-versions have you actually heard?

The versions I am aware of .. Nikolayeva and Gould. If you have heard better versions (on the piano in particular) then please recommend them to me.

There are many Goldbergs out there, but few BWV1080 on the piano. I wonder why? Maybe due to the fact that it was not marked by Bach for the keyboard specifically on the score.

[Don]

The versions I am aware of .. Nikolayeva and Gould. If you have heard better versions (on the piano in particular) then please recommend them to me.

Not necessarily better, but excellent piano versions as well:

Evgeny Koroliov/Hanssler
Joanna MacGregor/Collins
Edward Aldwell/Biddulph

I didn't notice any of these three available on ArkivMusic, so they might be hard to find.

[BorisG]

Another vote for

[prémont]

The versions I am aware of .. Nikolayeva and Gould. If you have heard better versions (on the piano in particular) then please recommend them to me.

There are many Goldbergs out there, but few BWV1080 on the piano. I wonder why? Maybe due to the fact that it was not marked by Bach for the keyboard specifically on the score.

OK, these are the piano versions, I know or know about so far. My listening experience is a bit incomplete, since I only recently became interested in piano interpretations of this work. This is of course nothing but my opinion:

Hans Petermandl, my preferred version, magistral and noble, reminds of Hills harpsichord version even if he doesn´t pull the music as hard as Hill.

David Lively (a live version) stylish, exiting, displaying the growing intensity in the course of the work to great effect.

Thierry Mechler much like Lively, making the work an integrated whole.

Ivo Janssen
and 
Risto Lauriala, both solid interpretations, more introvert and subtle in expression than Lively and Mechler.

Charles Rosen A bit didactic I think. From a musical point of view he is not as integrated as the above mentioned.

Grigory Sokolov
and
Evgeni Koroliov are both too romantic for me. They abuse the dynamic possibilities of the piano and play almost all the Contrapuncti in an exaggerated crescendo (whispering in the beginning and hammering in the end).

Zoltan Kocsis on the other hand is cold perfection from beginning to end, unemotional.

Glenn Gould  complacent, mannered, only heard a part of it.

Pi-hsien Chen is in my listening queue.

Edward Aldwell
and
Pierre Laurent Aimard , ordered both recently, not received yet.

I have neither heard
Tatiana Nikolayeva nor
Vladimir Feltsman nor
Joanna MacGregor.

[Mandryka]

OK, these are the piano versions, I know or know about so far. My listening experience is a bit incomplete, since I only recently became interested in piano interpretations of this work. This is of course nothing but my opinion:



Thierry Mechler much like Lively, making the work an integrated whole.

[

What is this, premont? The only Mechler AoF I can find is this one on organ

[prémont]

What is this, premont? The only Mechler AoF I can find is this one on organ

Thierry Mechler has recorded The Art of Fugue twice. The one recording on organ and the other on piano. In the piano version he plays Moroney´s (rather good - everything is relative) conclusion to the unfinished fugue. I shall find the exact information and post it to morrow. Well his organ version is also interesting, very intense all through.

[prémont]

This one:

http://www.amazon.de/Die-Kunst-Fuge-Mechler-Thierry/dp/B0000631A2/ref=sr_1_13?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1373666713&sr=1-13&keywords=thierry+mechler

[Mandryka]

Well the piano version has disappeared without trace, but the organ record is easy to find. There are loads of piano versions on spotify, but the ones I keep going back to are Rosen's and Riemer's, and sometimes the very dramatic one from Rangell. But I like Rosen's way of playing the counterpoint a lot, and I like the fact that he's not too insistent and intense. I've ordered Petermandl but it hasn't arrived yet.

Three  others which have caught my attention recently are the one from the Danish Lin ensemble for piano, cello and clarinet. The clarinet gives the music a nice feel for me, I can imagine the soundtrack for an Eric Rohmer film! I don't say it's a particularly deep record, I just find it really affable music making, and in a way quite revealing - who would have thought that the music could sound so friendly?

And I've been intrigued by an old string quartet record from the Portland Sting Quartet. I like the way they really do treat all the voices equally, so it sounds like something very complex and interesting - they make no attempt to simplify things by directing your attention here or there. They do some things which I bet will annoy you, like big dynamic ranges.

And I downloaded Bradley Brookshire's, which I enjoyed much much more than his French Suites. Sometimes I think he's really emotionally candid (cpt 5 for example)

[Florestan]

a piece written for solo keyboard (like most of Art of Fugue),

AoF has no instrumentation whatsoever specified. None, nada, niente, nimic.

you lose something, you lose integrity, by transposing it to ensemble. It transforms the nature of the music in a really fundamental way.

What is the nature of a music written without any specified instrumentation?