BACH: The Art of Life (Encore Edition)

At first listen, it’s easy to dismiss J.S. Bach’s The Art of Fugue, completed largely by 1742, as a dry collection of densely constructed fugues that do little more than prove the composer’s unassailable mastery of counterpoint. Counterpoint was an essential tool for any composer writing liturgical music, as Bach did. “Polyphonic music was often viewed by the church as one of the ways that we can see the logic in the universe—a way to prove the existence of God,” pianist Daniil Trifonov tells Apple Music. But The Art of Fugue is much more than musical posturing. Within it are flashes of the warmth, beauty, and humanity that characterize so much of Bach’s other music. In a rare display of pride, for instance, Bach writes himself into the final fugue, its countersubject based on his initials B – A – C – H (in English notation: B-flat – A – C – B). In BACH: The Art of Life, Trifonov aims to reinforce this human side of J.S. Bach, preluding his performance of The Art of Fugue with music by the composer’s children alongside selections from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach—pieces used by J.S. Bach for teaching music in his household—and one of J.S. Bach’s most personal works, the Chaconne for solo violin, arranged here for piano by Brahms. And so Bach: The Art of Life becomes a portrait of Bach’s character—the family man, the husband, the devoted churchgoer. “He had an extraordinary life,” says Trifonov, “which was reflected in his music. The Chaconne, for example, is believed to have been written as a lament after the death of his first wife, Maria Barbara. It’s one of his most emotionally powerful works—you can almost feel the tragedy.” Here, Trifonov takes us through the music on BACH: The Art of Life. Sonata No. 5 in A Major, Op. 17, No. 5 “This piece might have influenced Mozart quite a lot—J.C. Bach was already well-established, whereas Mozart was still in the early stages of his musical career. Although there are only two movements, structurally very differen