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Also the piano itself adds clarity! Even tho the full might of this fuga comes to live with an organ, also because you can't play the bass and the trill in the "soprano" at the same time. Great performance tho!

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Glad you enjoyed it so much! Bach is a genius indeed! Please subscribe for more upcoming videos!

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Thank you for listening! Have fun learning this magnificent fugue! Stay tuned for more videos!

Thanks for your kind comments! This may sound biased but Samaroff's transcription of this fugue was the very first one I heard, and the subsequent ones I heard just ended up being compared to it. What I liked about her arrangement is the clarity of the lines and minimal changes in register to accommodate impossible to reach parts. I would rather sacrifice a few notes over sudden octave jumps in the middle of a phrase. This reduction feels just right for me as it fits the two hands well without sacrificing too much counterpoint, or ended up being too thick and unintelligible by trying to include every note. I did end up adding a few high notes at 0:55 that Samaroff skipped, because I simply couldn't let those go...

Thank you, I appreciate your comments. It's not a trivial amount of work for me to learn a substantial Bach piece, and for a transcription I want one that's most faithful to Bach's intent. As for added high notes, I think they're right on! It's pounding away at low-register octaves and smearing with the pedal that just makes me cringe! I will definitely look into Samaroff's transcription.

I think there’s always an asian better than you and he sorrily doesn’t know your struggle you had

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Nothing wrong with expressing what you feel :) I try to cut physical movements to the minimum, but I can't help it sometimes...

Thank you for your kind comment!

Glorious, radiant, full of soul? What are you a thesaurus? The playing there sounded so off especially considering the original piece doesn’t have that slowing pace there to we’re it sounds almost like as if he’d hit a wrong note

Gracias!

Thank you for listening! The sheet music is available for free at www.imslp.org

Thank you for tuning in! Yes my interpretation of this fugue is a bit on the romantic side, so there is a bit more flexibility in tempo. This is similar, but not as exaggerated, to Chopin's music.

This is a transcription by the American pianist, Olga Samaroff.

Yes! Thank you.

Thanks for listening! Yes some liberties like dynamic changes and rubato were taken. This is a piano transcription written at the beginning of 20th century after all, so there is a bit of romanticism involved. Unlike the harpsichord, the organ itself is actually capable of dynamic changes. Rubato is also not strictly a 19th century phenomenon born out of a vacuum. It was just used a bit differently in Baroque times.

It's all about economizing your movement and learn the choreography properly. This is similar to the sleight of hand that illusionists do in their performances.

Nothing gets more clicks than a random wrong note hidden somewhere for people to find.

There are several places where the note played is not only wrong but false i.e. not in the chord, hurting the ear. A professional player would have made another, less faulty recording before posting on KZfaq.

@@gnuddi And I did make another. Read the description of the video. There’s a link that will take you to an online concert that includes this piece!

Thanks for your comment! It's interesting because I have gotten criticisms of being too free with rubato and making this sound too "Romantic" and Chopin-like. Being too strict with the sheet music and thus being "soulless" is actually a first! From what I understand about Baroque fugues is that the expression comes from the complexity of polyphony itself and any liberties you take must not disturb the structural integrity of the counterpoint, otherwise the structure of the music falls apart. This genre is fundamentally different than let say, dance music, where the rhythm and swing of the beat is the main focus and one can play around with that as long as the momentum and character of the dance is not lost. The added difficulty for this transcription is that the original music was not written for the piano, but for the pipe organ with additional foot pedal keys. The transcription must somehow cram everything for just 10 fingers. This means that some sacrifices must be made in order to both give justice to the music and be physically playable at the same time. The jumps at the end are those sacrifices, where it would have been nice to play the final cadence in full with all the bass notes, but it's physically impossible without breaking them.

I'm here after listening to Snoopy vs The Red Baron

If this is a keyboard piece meant for the harpsichord or clavichord, then yes, you would be mostly right. This piece, however, is originally for the pipe organ. It's supposed to have a lot more reverberation that mimics the echo from the cathedral acoustics. There is a reason why this type of music is considered a transcription, and not an authentic keyboard piece by Bach.

Thanks for your feedback! I’m assuming that you mean I’m using too much pedal? This is a transcription after all...the sustain pedal is there to mimic the reverberations of the pipe organ. If this is an original keyboard piece for the harpsichord, then I would absolutely agree with you!

@@MatthewMingLi i think u usef too much rubato time. Too much romantic style...that's barock

@@andrealucibello8417 Yes I did take some liberties when it comes to rubato. I think it’s a misconception that rubato is only for 19th century romantic style. It didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere. Baroque music also has rubato, it was just used differently. After all, lots of rubato decisions were tied to phrasing, and phrasing itself is related to breathing in vocal music. We all have to breath after all!

What do you mean? Are you implying that I’m using another person’s recording and superimposed it with my video? I can assure that all of this is 100% genuine. The video and audio were recorded simultaneously on two devices, all I did was putting the video and audio together.

@@MatthewMingLi the video artifacts/lighting make your hand movements look fake, like that part was recorded separately, and spliced in. and I have only heard this played this perfectly for timing (ok I did hear a few missed beats/notes listening again, but they didn't sound very natural) on actual professional recordings from the library. Maybe it's the camera and video compression lol. If this is really you playing, I am jealous as this is my favorite song. but the audio is also off by over 10 milliseconds, as well, making me think it's spliced together, not word clocked. Maybe it's recording gear, mixed with youtube compression.

@@MontCessna The audio and video was recorded on separate devices as I said before. I only do this to get the best possible sound and have the camera filming in a proper angle. There is no way to do both on a single device. There is absolutely zero splicing and editing apart from putting audio and video together. I am not a professional videographer, so there are some imperfections at lining them up. I have another recording of the same piece from a full concert in my channel. Feel free to check that out and you will see that this is indeed genuine.

Matt, is the background/lighting faked/greenscreened? I think it is. that's causing the artifacts and throwing me off. you're not on a stage, or a Steinway Grand. the piano, stage, lighting, etc. are superimposed. I have no doubt you are an excellent pianist, but all the lighting, timing and even finger movements are slightly off. also, if you were on a steinway grand, you'd play all three pedals. which would start earlier in the song. I now believe it's you playing, and very, very well. But this isn't real, and if you had that piano you'd have it multi-miced.

@@MontCessna Are you for real? I'm happy to answer your questions if you are genuinely curious how this is filmed, but if you are trolling then I'm afraid I'll have to block you. Why would I fake being on stage? Figuring out how to do that is much harder than learning to play this piece well, and I'd rather spend the time practicing instead! I did use the middle sostenuto pedal if you are wondering and there were 2 mics inside the piano. I only needed the middle for one part because I didn't have to at the beginning.

Mediocre critic :)