Intro to the Art of Fugue | Bangkok Post: Arts & Culture

CLASSICAL

The Art of Fugue, J.S. Bach's last work, left incomplete at his death, is a kind of summa in which the composer gave a final overview of the contrapuntal techniques that could be used in fugal composition. In the form in which he left it The Art of Fugue is in open score, with no instrumentation indicated (although who knows what Bach might have added if he had lived to complete the work).

THE ART OF FUGUE
J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, Evgeni Koroliov (piano, two CDs, Tacet label) and Munchinger (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Decca)

As a result, there have been transcriptions and realisations for a broad spectrum of solo instruments and ensembles. The Talay family culture shelf sags beneath an array of recorded versions for, among others, string quartet (the Juilliard, Keller, and Emerson quartets), saxophone quartet (the Berlin and New Century saxophone quartets), viol consort (Fretwork), viol consort with period wind instruments (Savall with the Hesperion XX Ensemble), piano duo (Alexander and Daykin), orchestra (Lukas Foss conducting the William Mulloch orchestration), Chamber Orchestra (Marriner, Munchinger, Lincoln Centre Chamber Players), organ (Walcha, Gould), solo harpsichord (Leonhardt), and solo piano (Koroliov, Aimard, MacGregor).