Tibor Varga

Regarding the Chaconne, Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann, commented on this work: "On one stave, for a small instrument, the man [Bach] writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind." 

Like the Chaconne, the Great Fugue, dedicated to the Archduke Rudolf of Austria, from all points of view represents a monumental work: Stravinsky saw it as “the most perfect miracle in music”. For Glenn Gould, it was “not only the greatest work Beethoven ever wrote but just about the most astonishing piece in musical literature." Beethoven himself considered the Great Fugue as the touchstone of his art. "In my student days I wrote dozens of [fugues] ... but [imagination] also wishes to exert its privileges ... and a new and really poetic element must be introduced into the traditional form," he wrote.
Accordingly, Tibor Varga characterized this inimitable composition as follows: “The great polyphonic art of the Great Fugue is the work of an incomparable master. His genius, however, is truly revealed in the unique representation of the essence of human existence: the confrontation with relentless fate, a painful confrontation, and the ardent desire for peace and redemption.”

spotify

apple_music

deezer

Tibor Varga Legacy, Vol. 5: Great Fugue

amazonmusic

qobuz

tidal

applemusic

youtubemusic

Idagio