Played by James Ching

Fugues 4 and 5 from 'The Art of Fugue'

Prelude and Fugue in D Minor from Book II of the 43 Preludes and Fugues

The Fourth Fugue in Bach's 'Art of Fugue' again 'inverts' the original subject, as shown above. This is a similar procedure to that adopted in the Third Fugue, which was played last night. This is a longer Fugue than No. 3, with a great many entries of the tune in all the parts. In the Fifth Fugue Bach fills in the gaps between some of his opening long notes, and so makes the tune flow more generously. This steady flow is kept up throughout the Fugue. One is reminded of the graceful movements and rippling muscles of a trained acrobat, and especially of the apparent ease of all he does. The two books of the '48' represent distinct periods in Bach's career. The second set, from which we are to hear the Sixth Prelude and Fugue, dates from a much later period than the first, belonging to 1744, only a few years before the Composer was working upon The Art of Fugue. The Prelude in D Minor, in merely two voices throughout, is a lively study, largely elaborated out of the two themes with which it opens-the rushing continuous semiquaver one in the right hand, and the slower one, in detached phraselets, in the left hand. Immediately these have been thus given out, the hands exchange them, and they, or material derived from them, make up tho staple of the piece. The Fugue-tune has great character; it falls into two distinct parts, a quick (semi-quaver triplet) climb up, and a slow (quaver) chromatic slide down. The semitone motif of this chromatic scale passage has great influence on the general feeling of the piece.