The Art of Fugue
Reviewed by Chamath Divitotawela
The third concert of the innovative ‘Chamber Music Plus’ series
presented by the Chamber Music Society of Colombo along with the Goethe
Institute and sponsored by Riksconcertne (Concerts Norway) was held
recently at the Goethe Saal.
This time around, the principal string quartet of the Chamber Music
Society undertook the daunting task of performing Johann Sebastian
Bach’s monumental ‘The Art of Fugue’, transcribed for string quartet by
scholars Richard Klemm and Dr. Carl Weymar.
The ‘Plus’ part of the series was the spoken word presentation by Dr.
Asoka Mendis de Zoysa of excerpts from Vikram Seth’s delightful book,
‘An Equal Music’, which at its core has a string quartet grappling with
the complexities of ‘The Art of Fugue’ along with their own entwined
personal relationships.
 As usual with this series, the evening began with Lakshman Joseph de
Saram, the artistic director and concert master of the Society, explain
briefly what we were to expect from the performance. A vaguely humorous
explanation of the ‘Fugue’ followed by some profound statements from
classical music luminaries about ‘The Art of Fugue’.
Fugal music
No less than George Bernard Shaw realised the quality of Bach‘s fugal
music when he wrote,
“Johann Sebastian Bach could express in a fugue or canon all the
emotions that have ever been worthily expressed in music. Some of his
fugues will be prized for their tenderness and pathos when many a
melting Sonata and poignant symphonic poem will be shelved forever”.
‘The Art of Fugue’ starts with an almost static musical statement,
but its in-born nobility is obvious. The individual part writing to the
combination of voices that are superimposed against each other, are to
be marvelled at. Bach did not specify any markings for these works in
the original texts – so this leaves basic tempo and phrasing to the
interpreter of the work. While the work may only contain one fundamental
musical subject, the genius of Bach is clearly displayed everywhere – he
demonstrates why he is the undisputed master of the Fugue. Many
composers to this day, continue to pay homage to Bach by acknowledging
the foundations of their compositions with tributes to Bach’s music.
Truncated version
The Chamber Music Society performed a truncated version of ‘The Art
of Fugue’, a wise choice, what with the entire work lasting over nighty
minutes of extreme counterpoint and chromaticism, all in the sombre key
of D Minor. The CMSC string quartet’s interpretation of the faster
fugues were full of baroque inspired lilt, giving the music dance-like
sensibilities.
The slower music was endowed with an overwhelmingly high-art
framework performed with absolute concentration. Overall, their approach
highlighted the awesome independence and transparency of Bach’s
brilliantly original writing. The reading of excerpts from the Vikram
Seth novel An Equal Music by Dr. Asoka Mendis de Zoysa and Ms. Sharma de
Silva was as appropriate as one could be under the circumstances. The
discreetly nuanced narration between the fugues helped ease the heavy
and intensely meditative/numbing quality of the music.Congratulations
are in order to the ‘Goethe Institute’, Colombo for supporting such
high-end cerebral content, the Oslo based sponsor ‘Concerts Norway’,
(Galle and Jaffna Music Festivals) for being generous supporters of the
arts in Sri Lanka, and of course, the Chamber Music Society of Colombo
for initiating and executing some of the most thought provoking
classical music events/discussions in Sri Lanka today.
The performers for Chamber Music Plus III are Lakshman Joseph de
Saram (violin I), Cynthia Fernando (violin II) Avanti Perera (viola),
Saranga Cooray (cello) and the narrators are Dr. Asoka Mendis de Zoysa
and Sharma de Silva.
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