The Art of Fugue Explored
My work on The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach’s mystical, unfinished masterpiece, had begun in 2013, but it was only in the last years and thanks to the support of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award that I was able to study it with enough dedication to offer it to the public.
The triumphs of intellect and craft, the symbols and layers of meaning hidden within this work’s conception are one with the moving singing that really is its heart. The view that it should be seen solely as a theoretical marvel is misguided: as the counterpoints and canons evolve in formal complexity, so does their emotional tension, until the heartbreaking mystery of the unfinished Fuga XIV.
Besides my playing, I have prepared a collection of material to further explore Bach’s poetic, not viewing it as a fixed monument of the past, but rather in vivid dialogue with contemporary culture. Listeners will find here a documentary series, featuring conversations with some of the greatest personalities of today, as well as an album, poems and a filmed performance.