For his recording of The Art of Fugue, Fabio Bonizzoni uses Bach’s early manuscript edition (Bach P200) to determine the ordering of pieces. Yet he actually plays the composer’s final versions and enlists fellow harpsichordist Mariko Uchimura to help out in the two mirror fugues (they present three-voice Contrapunctus 14 in Bach’s contrapuntally fleshed-out arrangement for two keyboards). Two Willem Kroesbergen model harpsichords are employed, and each possesses a gentle, dulcet sonority that is well served by sensitive, intimately scaled engineering.

Like his compatriot Sergio Vartolo, Bonizzoni is fond of agogic stresses, tempo fluctuations and elaborate ornaments, yet projects these traits in less fussy and more organically fluid interpretations. As a result, the fugue with dotted rhythms based on the main theme (No 3 here but No 2 in the final score) manages to maintain its marching momentum within a flexible basic pulse, while the fugue in augmentation and diminution (No 8 here but more commonly No 7) gets an unusually deliberate and lyrical treatment that never drags. The canon in augmentation in contrary motion’s similar conversational give-and-take and internal animation sustain interest at a slow tempo that normally dies on the vine in “straighter” performances. By contrast, Bonizzoni delivers one of the brisker versions of the final, unfinished fugue on disc. However, rather than play the text as Bach left it, with a single voice cut off in midstream, the harpsichordist resolves the final episode with a concluding D major cadence. In all, a worthy contender in a crowded catalogue, although my first choice remains Robert Hill’s two-disc traversal in Hänssler’s complete Bach edition, which gives you Bach’s final versions in addition to the earlier alternate texts.