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| Bach: The Art of Fugue | 
 enlarge | Artists: Johann Sebastian Bach, Emerson String Quartet
Label: UMVD Labels
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $9.80
You Save: $7.18 (42%)
Buy New/Used from $9.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  (24 reviews)
Sales Rank: 8056
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 000090802
UPC: 028947449522
EAN: 0028947449522
ASIN: B00008O8B3
Release Date: August 12, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Contrapunctus I | | • | Contrapunctus II | | • | Contrapunctus III | | • | Contrapunctus IV | | • | Contrapunctus V | | • | Contrapunctus VI, A 4, In Stylo Francese | | • | Contrapunctus VII, A 4, Per Augmentationem Et Diminutionem | | • | Contrapunctus VIII, A 3 | | • | Contrapunctus IX, A 4, Alla Duodecima | | • | Contrapunctus X, A 4, Alla Decima | | • | Contrapunctus XI, A 4 | | • | Conon Per Augmentationem In Contrario Motu (14a*) | | • | Contrapunctus XII, A 4, Rectus | | • | Contrapunctus XII, A 4, Inversus | | • | Canon Alla Ottava (15) | | • | Canon Alla Decima In Contrapuncto | | • | Canon Alla Duodecima In Contrapuncto Alla Quinta | | • | Contrapunctus XIII, A 3, Rectus | | • | Contrapunctus XIII, A 3, Inversus | | • | Canon Per Augmentationem In Contrario Motu (14) | | • | Contrapunctus XIV (18) | | • | Chorale: 'Vor Deinen Thron Tret Ich Hiermit' BWV 668a (19) |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Bach wouldn't like it April 14, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I enjoy this CD, but it's Bach played romantically. I'm not puting it down, just making the point that it isn't played the way Baroque music should be played. But that's ok, it's still good listening and well suited to modern ears.
Excellent rendition by a group I don't usually like February 20, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This performance surprised me. I don't care much for the Emerson Ensemble, as I find that they tend to miss the point musically much of the time. Still, they hit a home run with this cycle, providing a tasteful rendition of the Art of Fugue for string quartet. The musicianship is impeccable and never ostentatious, and a big bonus is that the whole work fits on one disc. I have to admit that Emerson is growing on me-between this recording and their performance of Haydn's seven last words of Christ, they seem to have hit a new stride. Rather than constantly trying to outdo one another and drown each other out, the group works together in a way that had been foreign to them prior to this disc. Overall a great performance of the work in a string quartet format. Highly recommended.
beautiful January 10, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Bach wrote this encyclopedic anthology of fugal technique as a theoretical exercise, not a concert work; indeed, he never so much as specified the instrumentation of these compositions. But you'd never guess that on the basis of these performances by the Emerson String Quartet. They imbue the album with an unflagging emotive engagement and continually mounting intensity sufficient to make the collection work as an extended suite --- it almost seems to have a coherent, dramatic formal construction, as played here. The Emersons are able to heat things up a bit with each successive fugue (especially after they're through the first ten, which are much more similar to one another than the ones that follow them), so that The Art of the Fugue comes off as much more than just a collection of loosely related contrapuntal etudes.
Furthermore the recorded sound and playing of the Emersons are magnificent. What sumptuous tone! What extraordinary resonance! This quartet is a well-oiled machine indeed.
I play both the trumpet and the viola; but the viola came much later, and my first experience of these fugues was with the Canadian Brass' album (for which, significantly, Glenn Gould served as mentor and artistic guide). But there's simply no comparison between the two discs. The Emerson String Quartet make three times as much out of these pieces.
the best October 21, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
From the opening phrase this recording by the Emerson Quartet sends shivers up your spine. I have nine different recordings of the Art of the Fugue; this is the best. Punto e basta.
Bach and Brain Science? August 11, 2006
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
David Finckel (cello): " I don't know there is scientific evidence to support it, but when I listen to this music I feel my brain cells being re-aligned."
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