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Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge

Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, Pierre-Laurent Aimard

This article is more than 15 years old
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard begins his exploration of Bach at the end, devoting his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon to the work that the composer left unfinished at his death. Aimard makes no attempt at a completion of the final Contrapunctus in The Art of Fugue, breaking off where the manuscript ends, and basing his whole performance on the edition of the score published immediately after Bach's death. Recording this particular work was obviously the realisation of a long-held ambition, yet for all his musical care and lucid pianism there's something rather characterless about the whole thing. This is neither Bach playing with an individual stamp to it, nor a shamelessly romantic re-conceiving of Bach's keyboard in terms of the modern concert grand. Aimard's playing never really engages the emotions and mind simultaneously.

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