Handel - Fugue in E Minor, from HWV 429. Piano: Mikhail Petukhov.

A simply brilliant fugue by one of the greatest genius of the Baroque - George Frederic Handel, from the Suite No.4 in E Minor, HWV 429.

[marcus]

I thinks this is Handel's most beautiful keyboard fugue. It's also his most difficult!

[franzl]

This magnificent fugue ranks Händel as one of the greatest masters of this musical form.

[achantus]

A have always loved Bach, but Handel at his best have a certain majestic quality.

[AbdelOveAllhan]

Astonishing fugue by 'the Master'. Relentless drama with brief interludes of relative calm...basically a whirlwind of blazing polyphony. The first 3 notes of the subject toll like the bell of fate or warning which are swept away by a tornado of 16th notes. The bells continue to ring of course and are blown aside with every repetition. He staggers the subject entrances from beat 1 to beat 3 and halves the subject while layering it with modulating entrances. The sequential interludes lengthen, new counter subjects appear and the voice leading range expands as the piece drives the end. A tour de force by the master of dramatic polyphony.

[studentofcounterpoint]

1:19 - 1:31 for some reason i can't get rid of this specific passage. it keeps popping in my mind at random times !

[PushkaryovVsevolod]

Потрясающая фуга. Побольше фуг Генделя

[Arsamenes]

Ah, just yesterday I happened to listen and read closely the A-minor fugue from the six little fugues for keyboard instruments, which has the theme, also used in "He smote all the firstborn" in Israel in Egypt. A quite complex and masterfully executed fugue.

[MootPoot]

this song literally made me start practicing piano everyday just over a week ago. this stuff moves you

[h.k]

I'm in love with this fugue 😍 that counterpoint is pure gold! Handel also wrote spectacular choral fugues, like the final chorus of Dixit Dominus, which is wildly difficult to sing

[Arobertson]

Oh shit why is this so much clearer than a Bach fugue to me lmao

[LanKelley]

pretty sure i don't understand this piece

[sovereign]

This fugue has very good motility, it progresses at a meaningful pace both in terms of technicality and tonality. One thing a lot of composers of fugues tend to get wrong is that the fugue tends to get "constipated" where it doesn't go anywhere meaningful in terms of ideas and consistency of pace/technique. J.S. Bach is still the undisputed master of the fugue, but with this example, being expertly interpreted, G.F. Handel is no slouch either.

[alwaurora]

Clearly, Beethoven was a follower of Händel rather than Bach when it came to writing fugues.

[lasituationniste]

The subject of this fugue reminds me a little of this fugue by Buxtehude (in the same key):

This piece made me apreciate even more Bachs fugues, some how Bach music is better, the only obvious flaw I can see in this fuge is the ending, witch I find a little abrupt, but saying that I cant even compose a fuge as good as this Handel fuge. Thats how good Bach was.