Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Sébastien Guillot :: J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue

A Superb Harpsichord Version of 'Art of Fugue'

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 06/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Surprisingly there aren't that many recordings of Bach's summa, 'Art of Fugue,' played on the harpsichord. Granted, he laid it out in open score, leaving instrumentation an enigma. But it has long been played and recorded on various keyboard instruments including piano, organ, even claviorgan -- not to mention saxophones, string quartet, string orchestra, guitar duet, recorder quartet etc. There was a pioneering 1950 harpsichord recording by Gustav Leonhart, and subsequent excellent versions by Kenneth Gilbert and Davitt Moroney. This mid-price Naxos recording by Sébastien Guillot is every bit as distinguished as its forebears.



The sound of Guillot's harpsichord is a delight. It is gentle rather than brusque. One does not hear the annoying chuff so often heard in harpsichord recordings where the microphones have been placed too close to the instrument. Indeed, the sound of the insrument is so clear and lifelike that one can follow the separate contrapuntal strands with ease and no aural fatigue. Guillot does not indulge in any distracting mannerisms. He varies tempi just enough to give interest in what can be, let's face it, a bit monotonous when listened to straight through. He plays the work in the order found in Bach's autograph, not in its first published version. This means he leaves out some accretions of later years. He does not supply a completion for the unfinished Fugue XIX but simply leaves off when Bach's score does. I find this moving and, in some strange way, satisfying. It reminds us Bach was a mortal being, not just a Great Composer.



I have tended to prefer 'Art of Fugue' on piano, or in the spectacular version made a few years ago by the Emerson Quartet, but for now this version featuring the clean and limpid sound of Guillot's harpsichord is the one I listen to again and again.



Scott Morrison"

Bach's Art of Fugue on Naxos

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 05/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In his biography, "Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician" (2000), Christoph Wolff wrote (p. 437): "the 'Art of Fugue' stands before us as the most comprehensive summary of the aged Bach's instrumental language. At the same time it is a highly personal statement ... Bach created an autonomous work of art that embodies the character and universality of his art." Wolff further observed on the nature of the "Art of Fugue" (p. 432):



"The entire multisectional work is derived from the same thematic material, a musical plan that presupposes a far-reaching thought process, regarding the harmonic-contrapuntal implications of the chosen theme. The result is more than a study of fugue: it is a compendium of the range offered by the utmost concentration and the highest technical demands of instrumental counterpoint."



Bach had composed substantial portions of the Art of Fugue by 1742. Bach continued to add to and revise his work and was preparing it for publication at the time of his death in 1751. The work is not scored for a specific instrument. I have heard it performed live on the organ. On this new Naxos CD Sebastien Guillot performs this sublime music on the harpsichord, an excellent choice for capturing the linear character of the music. Indeed, the Art of Fugue can be viewed as a successor to Bach's two other great compilations of fugue: the "Well-Tempered Clavier" and the "Goldberg Variations". Guillot's instrument has a subdued tone, with little of the silvery, bell-like sound characteristic of some harpsichords.



This recording is unusual in that it adopts the ordering of the pieces that Bach utilized in his manuscript. When he prepared the work for publication, he changed the title of each work from "fugue" or "canon" to "Contrapunctus". In addition, Bach ordered the work differently, arranging it into five sections each of which illustrated a different form of contrapuntal technique. Although it does not reflect Bach's final decision about the organization of his masterpiece, Bach's initial version performed here captures the monumental, building style of the work, as each fugue or canon gradually increases in length and complexity.



The "Art of Fugue" constitutes Bach's final testament to the fugual style and its potentialities. The entire cycle is based upon a single simple theme stated at the outset in the first work, "Fugue 1" in this version. The work opens with a series of eight increasingly complex fugues. The initial group is followed by a series of difficult fugues and canons and concludes with an unfinished four-theme fugue. One of the themes of the final fugue is based on the musical notes B-A-C-H (B-flat). This final section remained unfinished. The first few fugues are short, and they expand as the work progresses.



Each part of the set opens with simple material, a variant of the opening theme, and Bach gradually unfolds the scope and implications of his original idea in complex architecture, using the full range of fugal technique. The music is highly organized, difficult, and abstract. It is Bach writing both with total freedom and with the tightest discipline, creating an inexhaustible work of mind and the imagination.



This music requires patience, but the listener will be amply repaid. The "Art of Fugue" is a transcendental score, at the summit of Bach's achievement.



Robin Friedman"

Un monument de la musique

Rene F. Auclair | 07/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"L'art de la fugue de J.S.Bach est un sombre joyau qui peut paraître austère et difficile d'approche.Mais il est d'une très grande richesse musicale qui touche au sublime et à l'inaccèssible. L'interprétation qu'on donne Sébastien Guillot est tout simplement merveilleuse.Il a su bien rendre l'essence de l'oeuvre de Bach,qui d'après moi doit être jouée au clavecin. Ses tempos sont modérés et justes.La sonorité du clavecin est splendide. Le jeu de Guillot tout en pulsations intérieures fait bien ressortir le côté spirituel de l'oeuvre. L'artiste semble s'effacer devant ce monument musical...et refuse toute virtuosité gratuite.



Rarement je puis écouter un disque de clavecin au complet, mais celui-ci fait exeption.Lorsque j'en commence l'écoute, je ne puis l'arrêter tellement il s'en dégage une émotion profonde presque proche de l'extase.Et ce jusqu'à la dernière fugue, inachevée, qui s'éteint dans un cruel silence, en même temps que son auteur parti rejoindre son Créateur."