The Art of the Fugue

In the hands of Vieru, Bach’s last Fugue is a profound meditation on the most timeless things I know – slow, sullen, bold, inspired, serene.

André Aciman
in New York Times

A pianist of genius…

Renaud Machart
in Fanfare

The Well-Tempered Clavier

We can virtually hear Vieru’s brain tick in time with the music. He certainly makes us think.

The Independent

The Joyous Ecclesiastes

What a delight to read a book of such a dazzling intelligence, unfolding in a language with a purity worthy of that of a Cioran! One has to wonder if it is at all possible, perhaps, that the Romanian writers could be our last major prose wordsmiths.

L’Education Musicale

Preface

A journalist on the trail of a scoop and a mathematician about to solve the insoluble have in common the urge to proclaim: «I knew it before anybody else and will be the first to proclaim it.» All hail to the prophets and the numbers wizards, even if their motivation is only to satisfy their own egos!

Bygone autobiographies were not all written in a modest key: Benvenuto Cellini's for example. In the age of the internet everyone wants to shine on the Web or vaunt their views. Nothing has really changed.

I am a pianist, writer, mathematician and painter. In an era where specialisation rules, this does not seem serious. I have always refused to put a profession on my business card, only my name and address – in fact I haven't had a card for ages. I'm in the phone book and as far as I'm concerned that's enough: I exist.

I have no desire to present myself either as a professional pianist or amateur mathematician, as a professional writer or Sunday philosopher.

Nevertheless I wouldn't like to be perceived as a dilettante in everything! And that is the only reason I have included in this website excerpts from press reviews of my concerts, discs and writings (which in any case probably nobody reads). At least I want it to be understood that I don't play at home The Art of Fugue or the Diabelli Variations in order to disturb my neighbours’ forty winks. Nor do I write and then stow the ms in a drawer; normally I write for publication, for posterity – and, I must admit, for the wastepaper basket too.

So, why this website? To pay homage to the spirit of the Renaissance? Or perhaps to myself? That's not too farfetched considering it's the fashion these days. I doubt if I would have ever considered having a website if it were not for being furious with myself for not taking my mathematical gifts more seriously. May this site help me give the mystique of numbers a rest and let the mystique of sound take over!

Andrei Vieru