Description
J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue Vol. 1 – Wolfgang Rübsam, Naxos (Organ CD)
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Product Details
- UPC: 4891030507036
- Catalogue Number: 8.550703
- Brand/Label: Naxos
- Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
- Performer: Wolfgang Rübsam, organ
- Instrument: Flentrop Organ, Duke Chapel, Duke University
- Release Year: 1993 (recorded 28–30 April 1992)
- Genre: Classical – Organ
- Country of Producing: [confirm] (partial "Made in G…" visible on back cover, obscured by a sticker — likely Germany, not fully legible in the photos)
Product Features
- Format: Audio CD, DDD (fully digital recording), Stereo
- Total playing time: 72:16
- Series: Naxos J.S. Bach, The Art of Fugue, Vol. 1
- Also titled: Die Kunst der Fuge / L'Art de la Fugue
Overview
Bach never specified an instrument for The Art of Fugue, which has left performers arguing for two centuries over whether it belongs to keyboard, string quartet, or organ. Wolfgang Rübsam makes the case for organ here, and the Flentrop instrument at Duke Chapel gives him exactly the kind of clarity this music demands — each fugal line stays distinct even as Bach stacks four voices on top of each other. This first volume covers the bulk of the cycle: Contrapunctus I through XI plus two canons, moving from the straightforward four-voice fugues that open the set into the increasingly knotty inversions and augmentations Bach builds as it progresses. Nothing here is decorative — it's counterpoint pushed to its logical extreme, and Rübsam plays it with a steady hand rather than over-interpreting. Recorded digitally over three days in April 1992, the sound has real depth without losing the individual voices in the room's reverb. A serious, unfussy entry point for anyone wanting to hear Bach's most abstract instrumental work played on the instrument some scholars think he actually had in mind.
Interesting Facts
- Bach left The Art of Fugue unfinished at his death in 1750, and to this day scholars debate which instrument, if any, he intended for it.
- The Flentrop Organ at Duke Chapel is a landmark American tracker-action instrument, built in the Dutch Baroque tradition specifically to suit repertoire like this.
- This volume includes Contrapunctus XII and XIV, among the most structurally complex mirror fugues Bach ever wrote — each can be played correctly upside down.
- Wolfgang Rübsam is one of the most recorded organists of his generation, known for extensive Bach cycles across multiple historic instruments.
- The recording was made over three consecutive days (28–30 April 1992), a compressed schedule typical of budget-label sessions of the era.
Track Listing
- Contrapunctus I (Fuga a 4 voci) – 4:25
- Contrapunctus II (Fuga a 4 Voci) – 3:15
- Contrapunctus III (Fuga a 4 voci) – 3:55
- Contrapunctus IV (Fuga a 4 voci) – 4:10
- Contrapunctus XII (Canon all'ottava) – 6:03
- Contrapunctus V (Fuga a 4 voci) – 4:18
- Contrapunctus VI (Fuga a 4 voci in stile francese) – 4:53
- Contrapunctus VII (Fuga a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem) – 5:58
- Contrapunctus XIV (Canon alla Decima in contrapunto alla Terza) – 5:26
- Contrapunctus IX (Fuga a 4 voci, alla Duodecima) – 3:44
- Contrapunctus X (Fuga a 4 voci, alla Decima) – 5:27
- Contrapunctus VIII (Fuga a 3 voci) – 7:46
- Contrapunctus XI (Fuga a 4 voci) – 7:14
- Contrapunctus XV (Canon alla Duodecima in contrapunto alla Quinta) – 5:34
Publishers
Naxos, part of the Naxos Music Group. Recorded on the Flentrop Organ, Duke Chapel, Duke University. Distributed by MVD Music and Video Distribution GmbH, Unterhaching/Munich, Germany.
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