Gould - Master interpretation of Bach | Art of the Fugue - 70th Anniversary Edition

Bach Reincarnate? | Art of the Fugue - 70th Anniversary Edition | Glenn Gould, Bach

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	• Art of the Fugue - 70th Anniversary Edition Glenn Gould, Bach Sony, 2002 average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Ulimate

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.

Gould - Master interpretation of Bach

Gould playing Bach? Need I say more? Beautiful and sublime.....Love these interpretations. Wondering why Glenn's own written liner notes were not posted on this CD. He normally included this, unless this was not an official release at the time. I am sure someone can comment on this.

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Bach Reincarnate?

If you are interested in the Art of Fugue, get this organ recording by Gould and Tatiana Nikolayeva's rendition on piano. Forget about everything else. The latter version has two advantages: it contains the entire Art of Fugue (as well as the Musical Offering) and the recording quality is better. Those things aside, in everything from vision to virtuosity, Gould is far beyond his Russian competitor. Many people have complained about Gould's heterodox manner of playing the organ. It seems reasonable to me at least that though Gould chose to play the Art of Fugue on the one instrument that would give the separate voices, indeed, every note, dynamic equality and impart to them as much as possible the lyric quality of the human voice, he didn't feel compelled for those reasons too to alter his trademark staccato style. What we have here, then, is Bach's masterpiece performed with sound powerful and regal enough to do it justice (Contrapunctus VI is a great example), but with the clipped, clavichord rhythm that brings out like nothing else the playful personalities of which these fugues consist, emphasizing as Gould always does the conversational diversity and harmony that is the essence of counterpoint. Contrapunctus VIII, for instance, definitely a highlight of this recording, necessarily elicits a smile from the listener every time, it is played with such childlike frivolity. These, along with the rapid tempos, are Gould's artistic choices as he tries, not simply to perform the work, but to bring it to life, and I think he is successful. His Contrapunctus I is simply the greatest recording of this seminal fugue ever executed.

Not all is as desired, however. One clear instance in which a fugue defies Gould on this record is Contrapunctus III. Here Gould manages merely to transform what Nikolayeva's rendition has proven to be the equal and counterpart of Contrapunctus I into at best a handicapped half-brother and at worst a grotesque circus side-show. And of course the recording is incomplete. One cannot help but wonder just how the mysterious canons and especially Contrapunctus XIV, which Gould himself approached with fear and trembling, would have sounded from his organ. Unfortunately, the man who seemed to have such a close kinship to Bach proved not to have any share of his longevity and died young, bequeathing to us the definitive recording of the Goldberg Variations, but leaving this greatest work, as Bach himself did, unfinished.

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A must for fans

The selection of 'the art of the fugue'by Glenn Gould is a must have for fans of Gould. It is a shame that he did not record the whole piece.

Pure Gould

There never was another Bach interpreter the likes of Glenn Gould. And this recording is as good an example as any of his unique style--which made him both a worshiped cult figure and an object of scorn. Objectively, his playing is highly skilled but often erratic. On this recording, more than many others, his trademark sing-along humming is plain--often off-key, sometimes inventing another fugue part.

Probably no other performer was ever as fully immersed in the music of Bach. Gould made it his lifelong passion, almost to the exclusion of other composers. The result is both exciting and exasperating. I think Gould's Bach recordings, especially this one, with all of its oddities and weaknesses, should have a place in the music library of every serious music listener, especially of those who understand and appreciate Bach.

I give this only four stars because the recording technique and re-mastering are often uneven. Recordings made at different times under differing circumstances are placed in sequence with obvious discontinuity. But those are quibbles.

This should not be the only recording one has of this music. It's faults are too many. Nevertheless, I rate it a "must have" in spite of its obvious weaknesses.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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