J. S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080 Zhu Xiao-Mei

• 1 1. Contrapunctus 1 02:55
• 2 2. Contrapunctus 2 02:28
• 3 3. Contrapunctus 3 02:41
• 4 4. Contrapunctus 4 03:33
• 5 5. Canon alla decima contrapunto alla terza 04:15
• 6 6. Contrapunctus 5 02:50
• 7 7. Canon in hypodiapason (Canon alla ottava) 02:21
• 8 8. Contrapunctus 6 04:24
• 9 9. Contrapunctus 7 03:34
• 10 10. Canon alla duodecima in contrapunto alla quinta 01:55
• 11 11. Contrapunctus 8 05:35
• 12 12. Contrapunctus 9 02:46
• 13 13. Contrapunctus 10 04:03
• 14 14. Contrapunctus 11 05:30
• 15 15. Canon (In hypodiatessaron) per augmentationem in contrario motu 04:40
• 16 16. Contrapunctus 12 rectus 02:59
• 17 17. Contrapunctus 12 inversus 02:59
• 18 18. Contrapunctus 13 rectus 02:16
• 19 19. Contrapunctus 13 inversus 02:25
• 20 20. Contrapunctus 14 08:31
• Total Runtime 01:12:40

Info for J. S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080

Johann Sebastian Bach plays a key role in her life – she is today one of the most significant interpreters of his music. The remarkable biography of this celebrated pianist gives her a unique position in the world of music. Her life has taken her from the re-education camps of the Chinese Cultural Revolution to Paris, where her international career as a pianist began rather late, but for that all the more successful. In Leipzig, where Bach held his final professional position and where he composed The Art of Fugue, Zhu Xiao-Mei recorded this contrapuntal masterpiece, which is for her “the absolute zenith of polyphonic art.” As she says, “The Art of Fugue exercises a total fascination on you. It’s like a magnet: you can’t detach yourself from it. It is music that opens the gates to an infinite world where time no longer exists; a world where beauty and peace reign supreme, detached from all earthly contingencies.“

„…phenomenal Zhu Xiao-Mei…remarkable readings.“ (PS Audio)

„Zhu Xiao-Mei takes care of the form as well of the music, and since she is able to add deep poetic feelings, she succeeds in communicating effectively with the listener.“ (Pizzicato)

Zhu Xiao-Mei, piano

ZHU Xiao-Mei
occupies a place all her own in today’s musical world. Deliberately keeping her concerts few and far between, she appears in public only to perform especially demanding works, “mountains of the soul” which she judges essential, in interpretations matured over a long period of gestation, taking music to the most varied audiences in places that appeal to her and where she enjoys playing. But though she is nowadays the guest of the leading concert halls and the most prestigious festivals, though she plays with some of the most renowned orchestras and gives concerts everywhere in Europe, in Asia and in America, her career very nearly never took place at all.

Born in Shanghai, introduced to music by her mother at a very early age, she was already appearing on radio and television by the time she was eight.

At the age of ten she entered the Peking Conservatory, where her brilliant studies were interrupted by the years of the Cultural Revolution. She was sent to a reeducation camp on the border of Inner Mongolia for five years. However, thanks to sympathetic helpers she was eventually able to continue playing the piano.

On returning to Peking, she completed her studies at the Conservatory, and left China as soon as the regime gave its first signs of opening to the outside worlds. In 1980 she emigrated to the United States, then decided to settle in Paris in 1984.

From that time on, the career of ZHU Xiao-Mei, although begun relatively late and without any media coverage, began to take flight, going against all trends and fashions, in an incredible demonstration of the Confucian adage that

“life begins at forty”. She gives concerts all over the world, focusing on a repertoire which she limits to a few composers she cherishes above all others: Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann. At its very centre is Bach and his great cycles: The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Partitas and the Goldberg Variations, the work with which her name is particularly associated and which she has given in recital more than two hundred times, as well as The Art of Fugue.

Her autobiography La Rivière et son secret was published by Editions Robert Laffont (Paris) in October 2007 and was awarded the Grand Prix des Muses in 2008 (English translation at amazoncrossing: The Secret Piano).

ZHU Xiao-Mei is regularly invited to partipate to the jurys of international piano competitions (Clara Haskil, Long-Thibaud, Bach Leipzig,…). She has also teached during many years at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.

Booklet for J. S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080