Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer: Pieter-Jan Belder
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Brilliant Classics
Catalogue: 96035
Release: 2019
Size: 763 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080
01. I. Contrapunctus 1
02. II. Contrapunctus 2
03. III. Contrapunctus 3
04. IV. Contrapunctus 4
05. V. Canon alla ottava
06. VI. Contrapunctus 5
07. VII. Contrapunctus 6. a 4 in Style Francese
08. VIII. Contrapunctus 7. a 4 per augmentationem et diminutionem
09. IX. Canon alla decima in contrapuncto alla terza
10. X. Contrapunctus 8. a 3
11. XI. Contrapunctus 9. a 4 alla duodecima
12. XII. Contrapunctus 10. a 4 alla decima
13. XIII. Contrapunctus 11. a 4
14. XIV. Canon alla duodecima in contrapuncto alla quinta
15. XV. Contrapunctus inversus 12(1) a 4
16. XVI. Contrapunctus inversus 12(2) a 4
17. XVII. Contrapunctus inversus 13(1) a 3
18. XVIII. Contrapunctus 13 inversus 13(2) a3
19. XIX. Canon per augmentationem in contrario motu
20. XX. Contrapunctus 14 (fuga a 3 soggetti)
21. XXI. Contrapunctus 13(1) a due cembali
22. XXII. Contrapunctus 13(2) a due cembali
23. Duetto in E Minor, BWV 802
24. Duetto in F Major, BWV 803
25. Duetto in G Major, BWV 804
26. Duetto in A Minor, BWV 805
Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079
27. I. Ricercar a 3
28. II. Ricercar a 6
A new recording of Bach’s final testament and love-letter to the art of counterpoint, performed in exemplary style by the Dutch harpsichordist.
When he died in July 1750, Bach left tantalisingly unfinished his final masterpiece, The Art of Fugue. He had been composing and compiling it during the last decade of his life, alongside several other compendious projects such as the Mass in B minor and The Musical Offering, whose fugal masterpieces are excerpted on this recording. However, The Art of Fugue remains an absorbing testimony to Bach’s genius and to his life-long love and mastery of counterpoint. A single theme is elaborated with unprecedented variety over the course of 14 fugues and four canons. One of the fugues is composed for two harpsichords – where Belder is joined by Gerard de Wit – and composed in such a way that it can be performed backwards: an extraordinary feat of ingenuity.
Playing both a modern copy of a Blanchet harpsichord and a clavichord modelled on a Friederici original, Belder intersperses canons within the sequence of fugues at strategic intervals. The recording set contains also the 4 Duetti BWV 802-805, and two Ricercares from the Musical Offering.