Buy this album on iTunes: Bach: The Art of Fugue – Angela Hewitt


Bach’s final work, The Art of Fugue, is a formidable contrapuntal challenge for any musician – it’s essentially the Mount Everest of Baroque intricacy, containing some of his most devilishly complex part-writing. The work, consisting of fourteen fugues and four canons, is written utilising a different permutation of the same theme in each part, so Bach’s single short theme is presented in dozens of different ways. The four-bar theme is heard in augmentation (longer note values), diminution (shorter note values), inverted (upside-down), and in a whole variety of canons. Such an intensely cerebral work will acquire an air of mystery in any case, and the fact that Bach died before he could finish it has only added to its reputation.

Perhaps that’s why it has taken renowned Bach pianist Angela Hewitt quite so long to tackle this behemoth; she’s been recording Baroque works on the piano for many years, but she’s only added The Art of Fugue to her repertoire in 2012. It may have taken her a little while, but it’s been well worth waiting for, and I only wish that she had recorded this work sooner! Hewitt’s pianism here is incredibly dextrous, and fine-detailed. This is the sort of recording that puts paid to any arguments as to whether Bach’s music should really be played on the piano or not, because this is simply such an intensely musical recording that the dispute is settled.

Hearing Hewitt’s performance is, in a way, overwhelming. There’s not a single note that goes astray, ensuring that each fugal entry is crisply delineated, and so being able to hear every single part just as clearly as the others is quite an experience. Hyperion’s press release suggests that this recording is Angela Hewitt’s “crowning achievement of her Bach cycle”. I couldn’t possibly agree more – a must-hear!

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