classical music:

	Bach: Art of Fugue Bach, Pierre-Laurent Aimard Deutsche Grammophon, 2008 average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Given his links to many of the great contemporary composers, the high-profile Aimard is certain to generate much interest in the musical press with his first Bach recording. Aimard will perform The Art of Fugue in many musical venues around the world, in cities including New York, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Tokyo.

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Satisfactory...

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This new release of Bach's Art of Fugue is good; adequate; satisfactory.
I do hope people will enjoy it, and that it may be a good introduction to esoteric art.

Bach's recherché Art of Fugue is cerebral, purely abstract art which can really only be fully apprehended by viewing the orthography of Bach's text: in other words, it looks better in the mind's eye than it sounds to the physical ear.
Withal, it's pretty dry stuff.
Aimard's realization here is--to be brutally honest--drier than is even necessary; still, it's not at all bad, though there are better.

Enjoy this issue, and for the absolute finest too seek:

Bach: Die Kunst der Fugue

Bach: The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 (Excerpts); Prelude and Fugue on Bach, BWV 898

Art of the Fugue - 70th Anniversary Edition

Bach: Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 Vol

Bach: The Art of Fugue

Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge

Bach: The Art of Fugue, Vol. 1
Bach: The Art of Fugue, Vol. 2

Bach: The Organ Works (Box Set)
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Aimard's Art of the FUgue

If you cannot live without Bach, you should not live without this recording of the Art of the FUgue by Pierre-Laurent Aimard


great playing but harsh sound

I admire Aimard's playing ever since I heard him live several years back, and he never disappointed me with each of his new recordings, except this one. His playing is still excellent, but I didn't like the sound on the CD, which seems harsher than any of his previous CDs. I wonder if it's because the piano he's playing on or the overly done sound engineering during the recording. Aimard's playing is always marked by his clarity and liquid tone quality even with the most demanding passages. On this CD however, the clarity is still there but I somehow find the tone quality a little irritating to hear.

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Professional but not transcendent...

If I have to pick a performance on Piano, Glenn Gould's recording, incomplete though it is, remains my favorite. After that, Feltsman's remains my preferred. I also have Sokolov, but Feltsman, to my ears, brings more joy where there is joy, and more sorrow where there is sorrow. Sokolov's playing is cleaner, more Gould-like, but without Gould's intense "romanticism" or emotional investment. Feltsman is also a more idiosyncratic pianist, willing to inflect the music with his own personality. Sometimes he does so to a fault, as with his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which I wouldn't recommend.

One of my favorites is Contrapunctus 9. Feltsman digs into the fugue with all the gusto of Gould's famous performance on the organ. Sokolov's performance of the same piece is slower and comes with a sense of detachment - a little too studied.

Aimard's rendition takes a similarly happy pace to Gould and Feltsman, but it is oddly monochromatic. The sense of an overarching direction or drama is missing, and this is the feeling that much of Aimard's performances leave me with. I have no doubt that he can conceive of the piece in its entirety, but somehow he doesn't translate that in his playing. The sum does not exceed its parts.

The other element that I miss in Aimard's playing is idiosyncrasy. Each of his fingers strikes the keys with the sort of pearled consistency that is the mark, not of the artist, but of the professional. I miss the unexpected turns of phrases and emphasis that are the hallmarks of a Gould and, to a degree, Feltsman.

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reviews: page 1, 2



Tracks
Contrapunctus I | Contrapunctus II | Contrapunctus III | Contrapunctus IV | Contrapunctus V | Contrapunctus VI, a 4 in Style 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 | Contrapuncuts XII.1, a 4 | Contrapunctus inversus XII.2, a 4 | Contrapunctus inversus XIII.1, a 3 | Contrapunctus inversus XIII.2, a 3 | Canon alla Ottava | Canon alla Decima in Contrapuncto alla Terza | Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapuncto alla Quinta | Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu | Contrapunctus XIV (Fuga a 3 Soggetti)

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