Everything about The Art of Fugue is controversial. Did Bach finish it or not? If not, should a completion be attempted, or should the finale fugue be left in its unfinished state? What order should the various pieces be played in? Where they intended to be listened to at all? And if "yes," what instrument would Bach have preferred? The answers to all of these questions are: "We don't know, and it really doesn't matter." Supremely practical musician that he was, Bach never wrote a note that he didn't intend to be heard, and if he didn't specify an instrument, that's because the music works just like the fugues themselves--backwards, forwards, upside-down and sideways. Marie-Claire Alain is one of the great Bach players of her age, and this performance is in every way worthy of her. --David Hurwitz