Los Angeles Philharmonic To Present Organist Paul Jacobs In Bach's THE ART OF FUGUE
The performance will take place at Walt Disney Hall on October 12, 2025.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 24, 2025
The internationally celebrated GRAMMY Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs will return to Walt Disney Hall for a solo recital on October 12, 2025, 7:30 P.M. PDT. Under the aegis of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mr. Jacobs will perform one of Bach's final and most enigmatic words-The Art of Fugue. This concert marks the first time the LA Phil has featured Bach's The Art of Fugue on the pipe organ.
"The Art of Fugue is steeped in more intrigue than any other work of Bach," says Mr. Jacobs. "It's some of the purest music ever conceived. Many unanswered questions surround it, including for which instrument, or instruments, he intended it to be performed-if at all. For an organist, a particularly daunting puzzle presents itself, beginning with deciding which two feet and hands will play each of the simultaneously interweaving lines of music."
"I think that Bach was, in a sense, 'out for blood' when composing The Art of Fugue. After all, musical tastes were changing dramatically in the mid-18th century. Bach's own sons were catalysts for displacing his preferred 'old' contrapuntal style for a lighter, simpler music. Possibly as an act of artistic defiance, Bach set out to prove that there was still much to express in writing intricate fugues. The jaw-dropping complexity of this uncompromising work, left unfinished on his deathbed, has proven a crowning achievement in the history of music. Bottomless rewards await those who engage with it."
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