In July, 2014, Kimiko Ishizaka spent 6 days in the Teldex Studio, Berlin, recording Bach. It was the culmination of years of effort, including two world tours, three Kickstarter.com fundraisers, and untold effort and anguish. The results were spectacular.

No sooner had Kimiko arrived home, however, than she started the next, more ambitious project: learning Die Kunst der Fuge.

“Die Kunst der Fuge”, or “The Art of the Fugue” is J.S. Bach’s last, and in many ways, most ambitious composition. As the man was incomprehensibly prolific, the work bears the opus number 1080 (after the BWV system). Bach’s one thousand and eightieth composition is a series of fugues, all originating from and developing a single simple theme. The piece takes around 90 minutes to perform (depending on tempo), and is frighteningly difficult to play. The music is written in separate voices, although it is mostly likely meant to be performed on a keyboard instrument (Bach didn’t actually say), which means that the performer has to keep track of each line individually from start to finish. It’s mentally exhausting.

Confronting the death of J.S. Bach

The pianist who undertakes performing Bach’s final masterpiece not only braves one of the most challenging and intense keyboard works of all time, but also confronts the ultimate tragedy of music history; that Bach died before finishing his most ambitious work. For centuries, musicians have pondered what Bach had in mind when he began the final triple fugue based on the musical spelling of his name.

Bach spelled his name in the final triple fugue. It was a deadly mistake.

In the final Fugue a 3, Bach begins an audacious and exhilarating culmination to his massive work, combining three themes — the evolved derivative of the original theme, along with a jaunty second theme, each of which have just had their own extended sections in the piece — with a theme that spells his own name in notes (this is only possible if you think about the names of notes like the Germans do, go read about it). Unfortunately, he had barely begun when death claimed him, and the piece was left unfinished.

Performers have to make some hard choices when playing this work. What to do when you get to the last notes? Skip the section altogether? Some, like Glenn Gould, punch out the last note like a pistol shot, shocking the listener out of their musical meditation with the harsh reality that it wasn’t supposed to be over, yet. And a select few — perhaps a dozen over the last 260 years — have written their own ending.

Writing an ending to any Bach work is bold. How can you lift a pen to the greatest composer of all time? How dare you? And, how can you even begin to know what Bach was thinking? What should it sound like? The answer, of course, is that nobody can ever know. Any completion of The Art of the Fugue must be taken as a new composition that does its best to carry on the musical thought that Bach left us with, to a satisfactory conclusion.

2,000 hours to learn, and complete, The Art of the Fugue

The day Kimiko Ishizaka came home from the Teldex Studio in 2014, her study of The Art of Fugue began. The edition, including editorial notes, is over 130 pages. Kimiko’s process involves memorising everything first, then internally pondering the sounds, then practicing to lock down fingerings and articulations. She moves slowly, deliberately.

Months passed and the pieces started to fall into place. As there are 20 pieces in The Art of the Fugue, it took most of a year before Kimiko really got around to looking at the final Fugue, the one that is incomplete. When she did begin to study it, an overwhelming dissatisfaction came to her. This music, so miraculously crafted, can’t end like that, unfinished. It’s wrong. It can’t be accepted.

So Kimiko wrote her own ending. Her approach was based on the extremely thorough study of all of the pieces that lead up to the finale, coupled with a conviction that Bach would have concluded with something powerful, dramatic, expressive, and architecturally true to the musical structures that he’d been working within at the point where he stopped.

To date, only three people, including Kimiko have heard this new composition (and one of them doesn’t know what he heard…), but that’s about to change. On March 19, in a concert that is part of the “Bach in the Subways” series, she will perform Die Kunst der Fuge, komplett in Cologne, Germany. Luckily, I am one of the people who have heard the ending, and it is absolutely thrilling. It upholds the musical logic of Bach, yet is expressive and emotionally climactic the way that is fitting for a supreme masterpiece, such as this massive work.

So, how can you hear it? You’ve got two great options, at this point. First, you can attend the concert in Cologne. Plan some travel, come see us. It will be worth it. The second option is to become a VIP Member of Kimiko’s Bandcamp site where you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to watch the concert video after the fact.

A typical month in the practice room for Kimiko.

The whole time, Kimiko was keeping a journal of her practice hours, and that’s how we know, quite precisely, that 2,000 hours of effort will have gone into this concert alone.

So, what does 2,000 hours of piano practice sound like? We’ll have the chance to find out on March 19!