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Bach: The Art of the Fugue, BWV1080Helmut Walcha Organ
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Only someone driven to madness would listen to Bach's The Art of the Fugue all the way through, since any sane person might buckle under the weight of this supreme contrapuntal masterpiece. In the vertiginous breadth of his lines, the awesome scope of his harmonies, and the dizzying depths of the combinations, Bach reveals an eternal and infinite world of musico-mathematical meditations.So imagine how it must have felt for Helmut Walcha, the great blind German organist, to perform The Art of the Fugue. While that may truly be unimaginable for the sighted, it comes as close as possible to imaginable in Walcha's awe-inspiring performance of the work recorded in stereo in 1956, a performance of such unbearable intensity and such overwhelming concentration that the notion of notes on a staff, the concept of pitches and durations, and even the idea of musical space and time all dissolve in a universe of pure sound. It's truly heady stuff—but, sane or mad, anyone who did get all the way through Walcha's The Art of the Fugue would be rewarded with his rip-roaring Toccata and Fugue in D minor recorded in monaural in 1947 and his fear-inducing Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor recorded in monaural in 1952. Whether hearing them after The Art of the Fugue helps or hurts is up to the individual. Stereo or monaural, the sound here is big, close, and clear.
© James Leonard, Rovi
Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerArt of the Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV1080...Part 1: 14 Fugues (Contrapuncti) WorkRecorded 1956
Helmut Walcha Organ
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| 1 | Contrapunctus 1 (simple fugue) | 3:51 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerArt of the Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV1080 WorkRecorded 1956
1:22:30
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| 2 | Contrapunctus 2 | 3:15 |
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| 3 | Contrapunctus 3 | 3:22 |
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| 4 | Contrapunctus 4 | 5:31 |
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| 5 | Contrapunctus 5 | 4:20 |
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| 6 | Contrapunctus 6, a 4, in Stile francese | 4:09 |
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| 7 | Contrapunctus 7, a 4, per Augmentationem et Diminutionem | 3:59 |
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| 8 | Contrapunctus 8, a 3 | 6:39 |
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| 9 | Contrapunctus 9, a 4, alla Duodecima | 4:16 |
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| 10 | Contrapunctus 10, a 4, alla Decima | 4:18 |
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| 1 | Contrapunctus 11, a 4 | 7:35 |
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| 2 | Canon alla Ottava | 3:05 |
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| 3 | Canon alla Duodecima in Contrapuncto alla Quinta | 2:29 |
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| 4 | Canon alla Decima Contrapuncto alla Terza | 4:48 |
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| 5 | Canon per Augmentationem in contrario motu | 4:09 |
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| 6 | Contrapunctus, a 3, rectus | 2:51 |
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| 7 | Contrapunctus, a 3, inversus | 2:55 |
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| 8 | Contrapunctus, a 4, rectus | 3:03 |
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| 9 | Contrapunctus, a 4, inversus | 3:03 |
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| 10 | Fuga a 4 Soggetti (unfinished) | 8:43 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerToccata and Fugue in D-, BWV565 (famous organ work; authorship questionable) WorkRecorded 1947
Helmut Walcha Organ
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| 11 | Toccata and Fugue in D-, BWV565 (famous organ work; authorship questionable) | 9:16 |
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Johann Sebastian Bach ComposerPassacaglia and Fugue in C-, BWV582 WorkRecorded 1952
Helmut Walcha Organ
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| 12 | Passacaglia and Fugue in C-, BWV582 | 13:53 |
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