Etcetera: Pieter Dirksen — J.S. Bach: Kunst der Fuge (Version 1742) (Audio CD)

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Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Etcetera
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
• Performer: Pieter Dirksen (harpsichord)
• Work: Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), first version, ca. 1742
• Reconstruction: Pieter Dirksen
• Catalogue Number: KTC 1348
• UPC / Barcode: 8711801101859
• Release Year: 2007
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Baroque, solo harpsichord

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: approx. 78 minutes
• Tracks: 17 (12 in the 1742 version, plus a 5-piece appendix)
• Booklet: Liner notes in English, French and German
• World Premiere Recording

Overview

This is The Art of Fugue as Bach first conceived it — the early 1742 version, reconstructed by scholar-performer Pieter Dirksen and recorded here for the first time anywhere.

Most listeners know Bach's late, unfinished masterwork in its expanded posthumous form. The 1742 version is leaner and differently ordered: twelve movements that lay out the cycle's argument with remarkable clarity. Dirksen, one of the leading Bach scholars of his generation, both reconstructed the score and performs it, which gives the playing an unusual authority — every choice is informed by the research behind it.

The harpsichord is the right instrument for this music. The whole work is built from a single theme, turned inside out and upside down through fugues, counter-fugues, mirror fugues and canons, and the harpsichord's clean attack lets each voice stay distinct in the densest textures. The appendix gathers five additional pieces from around 1747 that Bach prepared for the later version, including the great mirror fugues in their rectus and inversus forms.

About 78 minutes of some of the most rigorous and beautiful music ever written, on the Etcetera label with full trilingual notes.

Interesting Facts

• This is a world premiere recording of the early (ca. 1742) version of The Art of Fugue, distinct from the better-known expanded version published after Bach's death.
• Performer Pieter Dirksen also made the scholarly reconstruction of the 1742 score, uniting musicology and performance in one artist.
• The entire cycle is derived from a single musical subject, developed through an escalating series of fugues, counter-fugues and canons of increasing complexity.
• The appendix presents five pieces from around 1747 that Bach intended for the second version, including mirror fugues performed both in their original (rectus) and inverted (inversus) forms.
• The Art of Fugue was left unfinished at Bach's death in 1750 and has long been debated by scholars as to its order, instrumentation and purpose.
• The accompanying booklet includes detailed liner notes in three languages — English, French and German.

Track Listing

Die Kunst der Fuge — first version (ca. 1742)

1. Fuga — 3:23
2. Fuga — 3:07
3. Fuga — 3:27
4. Fuga contraria — 3:59
5. Fuga duo subjectis — 3:43
6. Fuga duo subjectis — 3:51
7. Fuga contraria per diminutionem — 4:53
8. Fuga contraria per augmentationem et diminutionem — 5:13
9. Canon in Hypodiapason — 4:22
10. Fuga tres subjectis, a 3 voci — 6:33
11. Fuga tres subjectis, a 4 voci — 6:46
12. Canon in Hypodiateßeron al roversio e per augmentationem, perpetuus — 7:55

Appendix — additional pieces (ca. 1747) for the second version

1. 12a Fuga inversa a 4 voci, rectus — 3:33
2. 12b Fuga inversa a 4 voci, inversus — 3:28
3. 13a Fuga inversa a 3 voci, rectus — 3:23
4. 13b Fuga inversa a 3 voci, inversus — 3:34
5. 14 Canon al roversio et per augmentationem — 4:15

Publishers

Released by Etcetera in 2007, catalogue KTC 1348. ℗ & © Coda BVBA 2007. Distributed by Codaex.

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