BACH: Art of Fugue - Pieter Dirksen

This recording is an attempt to revive the earliest and perhaps most unified version of Bach’s last major harpsichord work, the Art of Fugue. It is based upon a reconstruction of a twelve-part version from 1742. This version is much more a concert cycle than the printed version, which has more the character of a rationally ordered fugue compendium with little regard towards cyclic performance. In the ordering of this version, the theme undergoes various transformations in a consequent and logical development, while in the printed version this development begins anew with each different group. The performance time needed for the ‘dynamic’ early version is moreover much shorter than the ‘static’ printed version. The version presented here is hypothetical in character – offering, nonetheless, fascinating perspectives. Around the year 1747 Bach made an ‘interim’ version of the Art of Fugue, in which the augmentation canon was completely recast and two newly composed mirror fugues added. These additional pieces have been recorded as well. And with the possibilities of CD technology one can listen to this second version of the cycle by preprogramming nos. 1-11 and 13-17. The resulting fourteen-movement cycle must have represented Bach’s thoughts about the Art of Fugue before he decided upon a much more radical revision – the final version as found in the 1751 print. Pieter Dirksen (1961) performs as soloist on both harpsichord and organ and as continuo player with diverse chamber ensembles. He completed his musicological studies with honours in 1987 and since then published widely about baroque keyboard music. In 1996 he received his doctorate ‘cum laude’ with a dissertation on the keyboard music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck; which was awarded the Dutch Praemium Erasmianum. Further books have been devoted to Bach’s Art of Fugue, Sweelinck (essays, 2002) and Heinrich Scheidemann (2007), and critical editions appeared with music by f.i. Bull, Sweelinck, Scheidemann, Buxtehude and Bach. He is a member of Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, the Netherlands Bach Society and the chamber music group La Suave Melodia. He regularly gives masterclasses in chamber music and keyboard playing.

1 Fuga 03:23
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
2 Fuga 03:07
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
3 Fuga 03:27
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
4 Fuga contraria 03:59
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
5 Fuga duo subjectis 03:43
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
6 Fuga duo subjectis 03:51
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
7 Fuga contraria per diminutionem 04:53
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
8 Fuga contraria per augmentationem et diminutionem 05:13
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
9 Canon in Hypodiapason 04:22
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
10 Fuga tres subjectis, a 3 voci 06:33
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
11 Fuga tres subjectis, a 4 voci 06:46
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
12 Canon in Hypodiateßeron al roversio e per augmentationem, perpetuus 07:55
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
Appendix: additional pieces (ca.1747) for the second version
13 12a Fuga inversa a 4 voci, rectus 03:33
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
14 12b Fuga inversa a 4 voci, inversus 03:28
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
15 13a Fuga inversa a 3 voci, rectus 03:23
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
16 13b Fuga inversa a 3 voci, inversu 03:34
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'
17 14 Canon al roversio et per augmentatione 04:15
artists: 'Pieter Dirksen'
composers: 'Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)'