The Art of Fugue is Bach’s final composition and one of his most challenging. In this album Phantasm and its director Laurence Dreyfus showcase all the hidden beauties of the composer’s magnum opus, arguably the pinnacle of the fugue genre. Printed in open score, the format allows a rendition on viols, as recorded here. Brimming with rich counterpoint and dynamic conversation among the parts, the work can legitimately claim a place within the consort repertoire. Bach manages to paint a finely delineated set of contrasting musical portraits full of revelations and surprises. Far from an academic encyclopaedia of arcane musical techniques, The Art of Fugue thus embarks on a (unfinished) voyage of discovery shared by an inveterate explorer whose thirst for invention knows no bounds. Organist Daniel Hyde performs four movements in this welcome follow-up to Phantasm’s acclaimed Well-Tempered Consort series.