Bach, J S: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (Die Kunst der Fuge)

“A fresh look at one of Bach's most elusive masterpieces proves that this is far more than paper music. The lively Berlin early music group make the sometimes dry counterpoint burst with inventiveness and life...their scintillating responsiveness to Bach's complex structures is a continual delight.” The Observer, 26th December 2010

“[They] imbue the methodical counterpoints with new life by sharing them between strings and wind, and by sequencing the series for maximum contrast...Whatever the sequence, it's the vivid way in which the Akademie realise Bach's ingenious structures that makes the recording so compelling.” The Independent, 7th January 2011 ****

“the mix of sounds from this crack Berlin ensemble is particularly lively. Whether in solos, trios, quartets or a combined mass of 22, the players beaver away on strings, winds and harpsichord, illuminating the interwoven threads and adding useful spice to music that plays for more than an hour in the same key.” The Times, 15th January 2011

“It's usually assumed now that it was conceived for a keyboard instrument, but the layout of the score does not preclude a much more varied instrumentation. That is what the Akademie für Alte Musik has adopted, preserving the overall musical shape of the sequence, but regularly sharpening the contrasts between successive numbers and varying the orchestrations as widely as possible.” The Guardian, 3rd February 2011 ***

“an unusually dramatic exploration of linear and textural variation...the incremental effect is both studied and often strikingly effective.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“Beautifully conceived and executed: superb clarity, attention to detail and absolute conviction. More fun, too, than plain keyboard versions.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 ****

“…what Aimard offers is perhaps one of the most intellectually rigorous piano versions available. No contrapuntal density defeats his forensic brain or articulate fingers. He does find lyricism and exhilaration, but there is an evenness of purpose which is both a strength... and a weakness when set against the pronounced poetry of Koroliov or MacGregor.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 ****

“This is Bach-playing to listen to every day, Fresh, spry and well modulated. If spirituality is to be found in The Art of Fugue, Aimard seems to say, it will not be through slow tempi, dynamic extremes or the quasi-religious trappings… Perhaps no pianist since Charles Rosen has no persuasively demonstrated that this contrapuntal encyclopaedia is to be heard as well as read.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

“Staggering technique, searching intellect and fantastical imagination” New York Times

“This is Bach-playing to listen to every day, fresh, spry and well modulated. If spirituality is to be found in The Art of Fugue, Aimard seems to say, it will not be through slow tempi, dynamic extremes or the quasi-religious trappings arrayed by the likes of Sokolov, Kocsis, Koroliov and Nikolaieva. The tripping, French swagger of Contrapuncti 2 and 6 and the smart Italian cut of No 9 fit neatly under the fingers. Freedom is found within the interplay of voices rather than any fancy phrasing: in fact the mirror fugues and canons are so unfussily done that you'd never guess without a score to hand how much a single musician can look and sound like Mr Messy while playing them.
This is not to imply dryness or inflexibility on Aimard's part. He follows Tovey in finding No 3 to be 'one of Bach's most beautiful pieces of quiet chromatic slow music', after which the extraordinary cadences of No 4 are necessarily pedalled and clipped, even chirpy: the envoi of a true Kapellmeister. The great unfinished fugue is especially fascinating, gradually accumulating kinesis until the surge of B-A-C-H pulls us towards its unattained apotheosis with colossal force. Applied with more plain-spoken authority, such emphatic strength of wrist and will rather chews up the Tenth's preludial bars and the expansive, chorale-fantasia conclusion of the Fifth, though with equal force one senses that, in this case, they had to be so.
Perhaps no pianist since Charles Rosen has so persuasively demonstrated that this contrapuntal encyclopedia is to be heard as well as read.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Seeing that we enjoy Bach and Mozart on a modern piano, should we demur at their music being played on an equally anachronistic consort of viols? Leaving aside the argument advanced in Laurence Dreyfus's note that much viol consort music was fugal in texture anyway, the fact is that the contrapuntal lines here emerge with great clarity and with a subtlety of timbre, articulation and dynamics beyond even the ablest keyboard player, thanks to Phantasm's accomplished and expressive performances.
The group offers the first 11 Contrapuncti, without the canons or mirror fugues, but plus the final uncompleted chef d'oeuvre that was to have crowned the project; Phantasm's playing offers new insights into Bach's prodigious mind. In his transcriptions for string quartet of fugues from the '48', Mozart – who, it's reported, constantly had Bach's volume lying open on his piano – made a few small adjustments to details of rhythm and part-writing; and the process also fired him to write several fugues of his own, including the one in G minor (for piano solo or duet) here. Phantasm, despite a slight tendency to hurry, brings a smile to the lips by its intonation, precision and, above all, musicality.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010