Johann Sebastian Bach
The Art of Fugue BWV 1080
The first integral recording of The Art of Fugue from the posthumous 1751 print.
Harpsichord Stephan Geiger, 1995, after Johann Christoph Österlein,1792, Berlin
second harpsichord John Phillips, 2007, after Johann Heinrich Gräbner Sr, 1722 played by Carole Cerasi
American Record Guide
Everything goes perfectly, like a platonic ideal. Patience and nobility win the day. This is what I hoped would show up someday, imagining 45 years ago how my ideal rendition of this marvelous music might sound. You need this one for the uncommon purity of Bach
Crescendo
But it is above all the unity of vision that we appreciate throughout…the prodigious architecture tamed at a poet's bedside…Here is the kind of interpretation that, placing immanence at the centre of the design, emotion at the heart of polyphonic combinatorics, humanises Bach's speculative genius. And bring us closer to it…an epiphanic humility 10/10 Joker
Early Music Review
This is an amazing performance by the expert harpsichordist and organist, James Johnstone… Johnstone’s unrivalled fluency in shaping the material shines through the textures with a clarity and inevitability which does more than justice to this towering work. I know of no better performance
Johann Sebastian Bach
Complete Organ Works Vol. 3
James continues his critically acclaimed series of Bach organ recordings with the Leipzig and Schübler Chorales and the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch. The instrument he has chosen is one of Europe’s most important and best preserved instruments — the world-renowned German baroque organ built for the Stiftskirche St.Georg, Grauhof by Christoph Treutmann in 1737.
“Johnstone’s realisation of Bach’s organ works is remarkable… a tantalizing series.” – Early Music
