🇫🇷Charles Camille Saint-Saëns ： Six Fugues No.2 Op.161

No. 2 from Saint-Saëns’s Six Fugues is a piano work that highlights the appeal of tightly woven counterpoint, with the subject passed from one voice to another and developed throughout. Centered on the subject, the overlapping and imitative voices, together with passages in which the subject temporarily becomes less distinct before emerging again, create a strong sense of momentum. In performance, it is important to distinguish the register and role of each voice, bringing out the subject clearly without making the other lines sound harsh. A steady tempo, along with a consistent sense of phrase direction and changing tension amid the intricate movement, helps reveal the beauty of the structure. Pedaling should be kept moderate, used mainly to support the resonance without compromising the independence of the voices.