Die Kunst Der Fuge: Keller Q

Perhaps one of the most enigmatic aspects of J.S. Bach's 'Art of Fugue' is that there is no indication for instrumentation. Bach may have had a keyboard instrument in mind, but which one we don't know. It has often been suggested that Bach had no instrument in mind, that he was writing music that was purely metaphysical, too perfect to be played at all.
But to deny that this music sound is to deny the music itself. The Keller Quartet has realized this and approached the music with all of the seriousness it demands. Played with little or no vibrato, the Keller allows the complex intervallic relationships to speak for themselves. One of the advantages to using a string quartet to realize this work is the quartet's ability to bring the counterpoint into sharp relief while maintaining a flexibility of phrase and tempo that an orchestra could never achieve.
This performance recognizes bowing and phrasing styles of Bach's time without the unnecessary affectations and languor of some "historically informed" recordings. Bach never completed 'Art of Fugue,' and though this recording trails off just as Bach's manuscript does, the Keller Quartet's comprehension of this difficult work is quite complete.