GG: Art of Fugue #1: a disagreement

[Andrew J Hrycyna <ajh@world.std.com>]

>I hate the way GG played the final Contrapunctus from the Art of Fugue, 
>too, as I wrote a few months ago.  It's a creepy trek through GG's mind, 
>rather than the music of the piece itself. 
>Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W 
>bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ 
 
As someone who has recently discovered with pleasure the Monsaigeon/Gould
films on Bach, I want to take exception with Bradley Lehman's dismissal of
Gould's performance of the final unfinished Contrapuntus from The Art of
Fugue.  (I'm assuming he means the performance recorded for the film An
Art of the Fugue, music recently also issued on CD.  Also: if this is
digging up an old F-minor thread, I hope people will forgive the
repetition; I'm a new subscriber). 
 
Ok: I love this performance.  Introducing it in the film, Gould discusses
the way that the Art of Fugue (unlike the WTC) works with a fluid sense of
key association that harkens back to old Flemish counterpoint and that
perpetually postpones strong cadences, giving a feeling "of an infinitely
expanding universe."  For me the performance of the first and third
sections of this long triple fugue--as well as that of the first
Contrapunctus, from the same sessions--completely captures this feeling of
purposeful floating through harmonic space without ever coming to rest. 
By taking it slow and building carefully controlled climaxes in each
section, Gould emphasizes this sense of gradual unfolding.  He plays for 5
minutes in the first section and it almost feels like one elaborate,
continuous breath.  Gould quotes Schweitzer talking about this music
as evoking "a still and serious wold without light, in tints of grey." 
That's praise for someone with GG's color preferences, and it points to
another aspect of the mood he's after and, I think, creates.  I find it
dignified and dramatic.  For me, Gould sustains a pace and texture that
convey the "devotional" quality that he attributes to the music.
 
And it's not just monochromatic pianissimo throughout.  He uses a variety
of articulation and color that highlights the structure of this immensely
long fugue and brings out the drama of it.  First, he builds
(pianistically) in each of the three sections to strong dynamic climaxes. 
That the last fugue breaks off, unfinished, in the middle of one of those
inevitable-seeming crescendos makes the end of the music that much more
poignant and intense, to my ears.  Second, he plays--between the first and
third fugues, with their sustained, choral textures--a middle section with
stacatto, almost hicuppy articulation.  It's decidedly an instrumental
rather than vocal articulation, and I must say that at first I found it
weird--a little unmotivated, even jokey.  But I've come to hear as making
sense.  I think it's an excellent answer to the good question Gould is
quoted as asking about this piece: "How do you keep it going?"  How do you
make an engaging, listenable experience out of this long and potentially
signpost-less piece?  By giving the middle part a very different texture,
he highlights the structure and the distinctive properties of that second
subject.  He introduces variety.  He also makes the transition back to the
understated quiet of the B-A-C-H fugue's opening that much more dramatic.
 
GG says that the music of this Contrapunctus moves him more deeply than
any other, and I must say that comes intensely through.  I certainly find
that the performance is consistent with his articulated vision of the
piece, whatever you might think of that vision.  In short, I don't find
the performace "creepy" at all, but musically well-conceived and
emotionally intense. 
 
Let me make a confession: Gould's performance of the piece is the only one
I know.  Manifestly no expert on the Art of Fugue, I'm coming to these
pieces after years of hearing occasional excerpts and admiring the idea of
the whole work, but always from afar:  I never knew quite how to listen to
it, or maybe just didn't have enough patience.  (I certainly can't play it
through.  My fledgling adult-beginner keyboard abilities are still at the
Invention level.)  I don't have a complete recording of the Art of Fugue,
so I have no other performance-- or performance traditions--of the last
Contrapunctus in my ears. 
 
It's Gould who--as in so many other things--has gotten me excited by this
music.  And (so) I feel a real affection for this performance.
 
I wonder how Bradley and others would react to this long-winded defense. 
I'd be happy to be led to other recordings that give different views of
this difficult, wonderful music.
 
Andrew Hrycyna