Consideration of recordings of The Art of Fugue too often spends an inordinate amount of space on questions of whether it was intended as a theoretical work or for practical performance, if so for what instrument or instruments, and in what order the movements are played. (The answers are, respectively: probably both; no one knows, and does it really matter?) For those obsessed with the last question, the order favoured here is, after the sixth (French) Contrapunctus, to intersperse the canons with the remainder.
Evgeny Korolyov, a Moscow-born and -trained player who won the Leipzig Bach prize 30 years ago and 10 years later was appointed a professor in Hamburg, approaches the first Fugue very slowly and tranquilly, starting and ending quietly but with increases of tension here and there. Any fears that this is going to be a bland reading of the whole are immediately dispelled by the characterful treatment of the ensuing movements. Contrapunctus 2 (in dotted rhythm) becomes almost pugnacious, Contrapunctus 4 is taken presto, and both it and its immediate successor are played staccato (without this sounding in the least gimmicky). Elsewhere Korolyov employs a judicious variety of dynamics and of articulation - staccato, staccatissimo, legato and detache,- to convey his unfailingly clear linear thinking; his octave canon (again presto) is exhilarating; the contrary-motion canon in augmentation light and flowing; Contrapunctus 11 reveals a sense of drama; rectus and inversus forms of the same movement are each given their own atmosphere, not merely mechanically upturned; there is an attractive buoyance in the Contrapuncti for two claviers.
The one weakness in this excellent issue is the totally inadequate presentation material, which doesn't mention, among everything else, the abrupt cessation in the middle of the Fugue on three subjects (which those unfamiliar with the work might not understand). Let's face it, The Art of Fugue is often made to sound dull and didactic: this performance, bursting with vitality, is absolutely riveting.'