J.S. Bach:
The Art of the Fugue

Johann Sebastian Bach's masterpiece - legendary, an eternal matter of discussion for musicology, demanding respect from musicians, a mystery arousing caution or even fear in music listeners?

How can one come to conclusions if one hears the work played by a string quartet, another time by a saxophone quartet (surely not intended by Bach!); occasionally by an organ, another time by a chamber or symphony orchestra, occasionally performed on a harpsichord, or in several cases on a (modern) piano (or even two!)? Anyone, not only a fanatic of so-called "original sound", will understandably become sceptical!

For centuries the idea has been nursed that the work is a mathematically constructed training hour of theory on writing fugues and is intended actually only for reading and analyzing, but not for playing and hearing!

At least the opinion that the work is not even playable on a piano with two hands has in the meantime been disproved by some pianists (to mention the most well known: Sokolov, Koroliov, Kocsics and recently Hans Petermandl).

As a world-wide first production there is now a fortepiano recording, using a Mozart type instrument. We (and particularly the publisher, Austrian Radio ORF) believe to have found the ideal cast. Whoever does not believe this is invited to help himself at the ORF Shop!

The CD also contains texts in English and in German (.PDF files); there is also a shortened version of the first text in German and in English in the CD booklet.

The image above shows the very well done graphics of the double CD. You can see more details double-clicking on the image.

After the new recording of the "Art of the Fugue", played on a fortepiano (after Andreas Stein, 1773) by Walter Riemer, downloading all tracks unfortunately is no more available. Please order the double CD from ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk) or from our web shop, where listening to or downloading of at least a few of the tracks is possible and finding the CD is much easier.

The double CD costs EUR 21.70 (+ shipping). The address of the producer is: Österreichischer Rundfunk, Argentinierstrasse 30a, 1040 Wien, Austria.