The Art of the Fugue A New CD and DVD Boxed Set by George Ritchie
A boxed set containing a 2-CD recording by organist George Ritchie of J.S. Bach’s complete Art of Fugue and two films on DVD--a full-length documentary film about the Art of Fugue and a filmed lecture-demonstration by George Ritchie on the 17 individual pieces-- has just been released by Fugue State Films of Great Britain. The Art of Fugue, written at the end of Bach’s life, is one of the greatest achievements of the human mind and a perfect blend of intellectual and emotional expression.
The first film on the DVD, the 90-minute documentary Desert Fugue, features Bach scholar Christoph Wolff. He describes Bach’s composition of two versions of the Art of Fugue, demonstrates how the subject works, and offers the hypothesis that Bach actually did finish the famously incomplete final fugue, but that the ending has been lost.
In the second film on the DVD, George Ritchie’s 111-minute lecture-demonstration introduces each of the pieces in the Art of Fugue, illustrating points with many examples from the score, and discusses the full range of fugal techniques used in the work.
The documentary Desert Fugue comprises three sections. George Ritchie addresses performance of the Art of Fugue on the organ and Christoph Wolff is the major voice in presenting the work’s history and its place in Bach’s legacy. Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes, the builders of the organ at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona where the recording was made, join Ritchie in discussing their creation of the 3-manual instrument, in 2006, as inspired by 18th-century Central German organs and their builders known to Bach.
A booklet contains extensive notes by George Ritchie about the music, specifications of the organ, and a list of all registrations used. The two CDs include, in addition to the Art of Fugue, several late organ works by Bach. The production was conceived and produced by Will Fraser and Simon Still of Fugue State Films.
