Thread: First Recording of the 120 Canons and Fugues by A.A.Klengel (1783-1853) online

I just finished my current Project to record the 120 Canons and Fugues of the Clementi-Pupil A.A.Klengel which are something like the WTC of the early romantic.
Here you will find teasers for the three collections:
Les Avantcoureurs,
Canons und Fugen Bd.1,
Canons und Fugen Bd.2,
Synthogy has recently used my recording of Klengels fugue on Mozarts "La ci darem la mano" as a Demo for their new Ivory II Italian Grand (=Fazioli) Samples

Here you will find the complete recordings of Klengel 120 Canons and fugues (about 4 hours)
I hope you will like it.
best
Steffen

I find your post a little confusing. Is the recording played on a real instrument or is it computerized?

These works sound more interesting than similar works I've heard by Simon Sechter (although admittedly I've heard very little of his).

Originally Posted by Webernite

I find your post a little confusing. Is the recording played on a real instrument or is it computerized?

Sounds like it means piano samples. That would be hundreds of single note samples with each piano key struck in every conceivable way and then played back/triggered through a midi-keyboard for almost exact replication of how a piano would respond. It's at least as sensitive as a piano roll at any rate, maybe even more so, with the added bonus you can go in and tweak the midi recording to make corrections if desired.

At least that's my understanding of process.

These examples sound wonderful to me! I'm very interested in the whole set.

[ETA: my God, what a treasure trove! I love the site at the last link.]

I thought it sounded computerized, but then I thought it might be some unusual piano (it reminded me of this one, actually).

Yes Weston described it quite exactly. Each single Key has been recorded by the Producer of the Samplelibrary multiple times, to reflect every change in Colour each different Keyvelocity might produce. The Producer of the sample Library chose and extraordinäry good Instrument (in this case it is a large Fazioli) to become the best possible range of Colours a piano might produce. So with a good soundengineer, you might even be luckier with samples than with recording a "real" Grandpiano. It seems to me quite interesting if this reminds webernite - stating to have an "computerized" impression - on a recording, which is recorded on a 1912 Bösendorfer and played live and obviously quite vital as one can see. So if your example for computerized music is the "real" thing, would mean that it seem to be a good choice to produce my recordings this way. the limits of the sound most probably might be the limits of the soundsystem, you use for listening the mp3's on your PC.

But what I am more curious about, is what you think about Klengel. For me at least it was quite a positive surprise, to really hear what he has written. I always just "knew" that he was highly esteemed for his counterpoint in the 19.th century. I think I could understand it now a bit more.

Simon Sechter is a great hint. Of course seems the difference, that Sechter tried to compose a fugue every day producing thousands of fugues this way, while Klengel just concentrated on his 120 making them more and more perfect over years of his live. I dont know the fugues of Sechter, but for Klengel I think one can hear that he was not only an intelligent composer but an experienced pianist to. If I ever maneged to produce the 1100 Pianopieces of Robert Kahn (the composer my thesis is about) I might have one time even courage enough for the 5000 fugues of Simon Sechter, which I would at least expect to be quite interesting music to.

For the moment I must admit, that I am quite happy that I had persistence enough for 120 canons and fugues. I am just a human, so to produce thousands of fugues is still 'a bit' more to do than just 120. ;-)
best
fahl5