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| Art of the Fugue - 70th Anniversary Edition | 
 enlarge | Artists: Glenn Gould, Bach
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $7.08
You Save: $4.90 (41%)
Buy New/Used from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (10 reviews)
Sales Rank: 26942
Format: Limited Edition, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 87759
UPC: 696998775923
EAN: 0696998775923
ASIN: B00006FI8C
Release Date: September 3, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 The Ulimate November 3, 2007
This Art of Fugue is simply the best there is--Gould was born to play Bach and after having heard many different versions, nothing comes close to his performances in my opinion. Clear, compelling, natural, lyrical and musical. The combination of Gould on the organ playing Art of Fugue makes this a force of nature in all it's varieties--beautiful, powerful, delicate, searching.
Amazing, terrible, profound... September 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gould's final performances of the Art of the Fugue - particularly the final, unfinished Contrapunctus XIV - are absolutely stunning. They are probably as close to divine as music can aspire.
His earlier attempt to master Bach's monumental work is on organ and it is a shocker - the first 10 tracks of this cd are worthy as a curio or for the perverse.
But the last half of the album redeems the organ catastrophe and then some. Listen to the last fugue and realise that even with Gould singing, even unfinished, it is truly awesome.
Genius at work August 4, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It was not until recently thay I new of Glenn Gould I am sorry to say.I saw his trip to Russia and what the Russians thought of him.I have never heard anyone play like him!Every month I add something more to my collection!Since I am retired I spend a great deal of time in my workshop and listen to Glenn all day as I work.It seems like the notes from his playing just fill the room.His work is not boring by any means!
 Gould's Most Errant Interpretation February 13, 2007
7 out of 19 found this review helpful
Mr. Khekoyan, who reviews this disk below, is quite correct that it is errant in tempi and in percussive interpretation. I'm not in agreement with him about Glenn Gould's stature as the foremost interpreter of Bach of the century. I'd suggest listening to the performance of Menno van Delft, which is included in the Bach Edition complete works produced by Brilliant Classics. There are any number of people who might nominate Gustav Leonhardt, Trevor Pinnock, or Bob van Asperen as more insightful interpreters of Bach than Glenn Gould. Don't let Gould's curious cult status mislead you; his performances are more quirky than competent.
Or, if you are attracted to the Art of Fugue rather than the Artist, you might listen to the performance of the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, also available on CD. Though there is no historical justification for playing Bach's harpsichord music on recorders, the LSQ makes fine and insightful music on their wooden flutes, large and small. At times they sound more organistic than Mr. Gould on his modern behemoth.
THE VERY SOUL OF MUSIC September 7, 2006
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
What you will find on this disc is A) contrapunctus I-IX played on two different organs in 1962; B) contrapunctus I II & IV from a1981 TV broadcast; C) contrapunctus IX XI & XIII in mono from a radio broadcast in 1967; D) the unfinished contrapunctus XIV from what may or may not be the same TV broadcast as B); and as a final filler E) a prelude and fugue on the name BACH from a studio recording in 1980. Items B)-E) are given on the piano.
Gould's organ renderings ran into critical flak at the time, and whether for that reason or because organ-playing aggravated a shoulder condition that the maestro suffered from he never completed the project. The sound of the piano is a little below standard in C), with some background hiss and a slightly emaciated tone, but even it is not really bad, B) and D) are better, and E) better still sound-wise. The sound of the organs has been criticised, but I do not criticise it and indeed it suits me very well. Nothing in the sound-quality from start to finish interferes in any way with my appreciation of Gould's wonderful, visionary and unique Bach-playing.
This disc does not offer you the complete Art of Fugue, so anyone who wants what's here is going to want it for something special in the performance. Gould is always special I guess, but not special in ways that suit everyone. My feeling is that if you are of the school that wants the Art of Fugue played `expressively' you can probably leave this offering alone. Once Gould sets a tempo he sticks to it unflinchingly without rubato, and except for some build-up in the tone as D) progresses there is a very restricted range of dynamics within each piece, although the individual pieces are strongly contrasted in respect of both volume-level and pace. Interestingly, in those numbers which he gives in two different performances, he takes a markedly different approach each time. Conrapunctus II IV and IX are very much faster in the piano version than on the organ, but contrapunctus I on the piano is taken very slowly indeed, lasting nearly twice as long as in the organ account. It is a matter of one's own concept of the work basically. For me, the Art of Fugue is the ultimate in abstract `absolute' music. It is a monument of remote sublimity like pure mathematics or like the stars in the sky, and it is just there for us to wonder at and does not reach out to us or `express' anything. The player's task is to convey its grandeur, and for me Gould does that as no other version, (on any instruments whatsoever - Bach specifies none) has ever done for me, and I feel this most acutely in his much-criticised organ renderings. The organs he uses are not giants, and there is only limited use of the pedals. He uses mainly a detached fingering, although embracing a more legato style in contrapunctus VI. However it stands to reason that the parts in long sustained notes do not admit of the detached treatment, and I love Gould's selection of strongly contrasted stops to assist clarity further. These are the means he adopts. What these means are in furtherance of is an impression of utter grandeur in the sublime march of Bach's polyphony. It is even a privilege to be shown how this grandeur can be viewed from startlingly different angles in his alternative interpretations of 4 of the fugues.
The last fugue from the Art, the unfinished contrapunctus XIV, is taken at a very slow pace and ends abruptly where the dying composer left it. In the normal way of things I detest this procedure - whatever Bach intended it wasn't that, and in a composition that is the ne plus ultra of method many competent musicians have supplied conclusions that must, in the very nature of the case, approximate to what Bach himself would have done. However this was a television performance, and I gather that the camera was made to freeze at this point with Gould's right hand poised dramatically in mid-air. Gould, who kicked Ravel's piano transcription of La Valse into touch and wrote his own, is having none of that when it comes to Bach, and under the circumstances I stifle my own normal reaction to this abrupt hiatus.
One of the most extraordinary things about Bach is how popular he manages to be for all his seeming severity. The Art of Fugue is innocent of the lyricism that was also part of Bach's infinite musical gift, it makes no compromises with us, but I would say to newcomers to the work that Gould's accounts, partial as they are, would be the best place to start to know this unique and towering masterpiece. It is not any indivisible entity in any case. Better, to start with, to hear some of it presented like this than the entire set in many another, perhaps indeed in any other, version.
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