- 692Recommend It!
- 7,494views
Bailey's Bundles
J.S. Bach's Problem Child: Die Kunst Der Fuge (The Art of Fugue)
C. Michael Bailey
...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...Vartolo adds exhaustive liner notes (adapted from an exhaustive discourse on the origins of composition in print). He takes seriously Bach's notation on Alio modo Fuga a 2 clav., employing frequent partner Maddalena Vartolo as the second harpsichord. Vartolo's TAOF amply fills up two entire compact discs, expertly paced and performed. Vartolo's performance may serve as a standard for understanding Bach's final masterpiece.
Vittorio Ghielmi e Lorenzo Ghielmi Il Suonar Parlante
Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kunst Der Fuge
Winter & Winter
2009
Where Sergio Vartolo's TAOF is starched white and fit for the class room (as well as the museum) Vittorio and Lorenzo Ghielmi's is better fit for the parlor, salon or drawing room. It is user-friendly Bach, easy on the ears and nerves. The Ghielmis alternate the various contrapuncti and canons between Vittorio Ghielmi's viol consort, Il Suonar Parlante, and Lorenzo Ghielmi's harpsichord and piano forte.
The Ghielmi vision of TAOF is not unlike Uri Caine's urban realizations of Wagner and Mahler. The performances recall not the concert stage, but the more intimate and modest climes of the neighborhood bar, the coffee shop, the family front room. While precise and well-crafted, Lorenzo Ghielmi's playing is organically homespun and warm with familiarity. This is particularly evident when the elder Ghielmi employs his piano forte, where the contrapunti take on the glow of a child conquering the Master at the family upright.
There is a certain fortune to the fact that Bach did not fully flesh out TAOF. It offers talent as disparate as Sergio Vartolo and Vittorio and Lorenzo Ghielmi a meeting place for their respective scholarship imagination.
Tracks and Personnel
J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Tracks: Disc 1: Contrapunctus 1 a 4; Contrapunctus 2 a 4; Contrapunctus 3 a 4; Contrapunctus 4 a 4; Contrapunctus 5 a 4; Contrapunctus 6 a 4 in Stylo Francese; Contrapunctus 7 a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem; Contrapunctus 8 a 3; Contrapunctus 9 a 4 alla Duodecima; Contrapunctus 10 a 4 alla Decima. Disc 2:Contrapunctus 11 a 4; Contrapunctus inversus 12 a 4 in forma recta; Contrapunctus inversus 12 a 4 in forma inverse; Contrapunctus inversus 13 a 3 in forma inverse; Contrapunctus inversus 13 a 3 in forma recta; Fuga a 3 Soggetti; Canon alla Ottava; Canon alla Decima; Canon alla Duodecima; Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu.
Personnel: Sergio Vartolo: harpsichord and Maddalena Vartolo: harpsicord.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kunst Der Fuge
Contrapunctus 1; Contrapunctus 2; Contrapunctus 3; Contrapunctus 4; Contrapunctus 5; Contrapunctus 6, a 4 in Stylo Francese; Contrapunctus 7, a 4 per Augmentationem et Diminutionem; Contrapunctus 8, a 3; Contrapunctus 9, a 4 alla Duodecima; Contrapunctus 10, a 4 alla Decima; Contrapunctus 11, a 4; Contrapunctus 12, a 4; Contrapunctus inversus a 4; Contrapunctus 13 a 3; Contrapunctus inversus a 3; Contrapunctus 14 [completed by L. Ghielmi]; Canon alla Ottava; Canon alla Decima Contrapuncto alla Terza; Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapuncto alla Quinta; Canon per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu; Choral. Wenn wir in hoechsten Noethen. Canto fermo in Canto.
Personnel: Vittorio Ghielmi: soprano and bass viol; Rodney Prada: tenor viol; Fahmi Alqhai: bass viol; Cristiano Contadin: great bass viol; Lorenzo Ghielmi: harpsichord, Silbermann fortepiano; Marcello Gatti: flute.
