Bach's Art of Fugue is a work that I have always found fascinating and daunting in equal measure. The scholarly consensus is that it was written for the keyboard, but performances by ensembles can make more sense - certainly to the less academically-inclined listener! The 22-strong Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin have taken the performance aspect a stage further, using strings, wind and keyboard instruments in various solo and tutti combinations throughout the work. It is an inspired idea; the solo instruments used in the four canons (which are here interspersed among the contrapunctus movements) act as palate-cleansers, while the denser textures of some of the more elaborate fugal passages are clarified by changes in instrumentation. There's nothing dry about the playing - the string quartet in the opening contrapunctus caresses the lines lovingly, while elsewhere the woodwind's articulation makes the music dance. The disc inspired me to watch Fugue State Film's DVD about the Art of Fugue, which has received much praise. It proved fascinating, and is a superb introduction to the work. The opening 90-minute documentary investigates the circumstances under which Bach composed his Art of Fugue and discusses its legacy, with substantial contributions from leading Bach scholar Christoph Wolff and the American organist George Ritchie, who has devoted much of his career to the music of Bach and this work in particular. The documentary is followed by a filmed lecture where Ritchie discusses and briefly analyses each fugue in turn, playing passages on the organ by way of illustration. At 110 minutes it is quite a lot to take in, but illuminating nonetheless; Ritchie is a relaxed but very knowledgeable and focused guide. The package includes two CDs containing Ritchie's own peformance of the Art of Fugue (and some other late Bach organ works) on an impressive 2006 Arizona organ based on central German organs of Bach's time.

Reviewed by Anne McAlister