Christian Kälberer performs Bach’s Die Kunst Der Fuge (Art of the Fugue)

Christian Kälberer will perform the original version of Bach’s Art of the Fugue. This tour marks 275 years since the date of composition.

The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach is regarded as the most fundamental achievement of musical history which, in the version of the print edition, also belongs to the unquestioned canon of interpretive history. The burden of the work had hitherto been so heavy that one could easily overlook the fragmentary and sometimes foreign character of this version.

But there is a history of the work; whoever wants to come to Bach’s only self-contained version must go to the earliest possible version: The clean autograph score from 1740 ff, which is the only version both complete in itself and written entirely by Bach’s hand. It has so far not been edited retrospectively. The pianist Christian Kälberer mounted the re-write of The Art of Fugue several years ago, the recording of which he now presents as a CD with the label Thorofon (CTH 26402).

After editing the CD, the First Version of The Art of Fugue is going on concert tour, so 275 years after the composition! The US American premiere will take place at PianoForte Chicago!

Of course, a musically motivated recertification of the autograph score was only one goal of Kälberer’s interest. An important aspect of the problem was a philosophical deepening of the work structure of The Art of Fugue, and, of course, the uniform, aural fusion of this exceptional, complex piano work.

Thus, the development, recording and performance of Bach’s non plus ultra becomes a whole of theory and practice, an integral process of philosophical theory, musicological research, absolute artwork, autonomous sound event and subjective listening experience. Be part of it!

Christian Kälberer, native of Berlin, studied conducting at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (now Universität der Künste) and was director of Berlin Sinfonietta and manager and art director of Grimmsches Operntheater. Concerts all over the world, last performances in the USA in fall 2018 on invitation of The Gustav Mahler Society of New York with the paino version of Mahler‘s „Das Lied von der Erde.“