Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685, and died in Leipzig, Germany, on July 28, 1750. Approximate performance time is two minutes.

Bach’s Die Kunst der Fugue (The Art of the Fugue) is a work that continues to be the subject of debate, and shrouded in mystery. Bach himself did not give the work its title, left incomplete at his death, and published posthumously. The Art of the Fugue, a series of fugues (Bach used the term Contrapunctis) and canons, is based upon a common theme. 

There is a difference of opinion as to what instrument or instruments Bach intended for performances of his Art of the Fugue. For that matter, it is not certain that Bach composed these incredible works for performance at all, perhaps intending them solely for study. Appreciation of this masterwork was slow in arriving, leading the 19th century Bach biographer Philipp Spitta to observe:

"Few, perhaps, have the ability and the inclination to understand it as a whole. The obscure state in which it has hitherto lain has rendered this task all the harder, and it has thus come about that a composition of incomparable perfection and depth of feeling, although it has always been mentioned with especial reverence as being Bach’s last great work, has never yet formed part of the life of the German nation."

Today, of course, The Art of the Fugue is revered by musicians and music lovers around the world. Emblematic of Bach’s genius, The Art of the Fugue, a breathtakingly intricate and complex work, is also music of arresting emotional depth and beauty.

This concert presents the Contrapunctis XIII, offers the fugue in two forms. The first (“Rectus”), is followed by its mirror inversion (“Inversus”).