No one's mentioned the finale of Beethoven's op. 110 piano sonata yet, so I will. It's my favorite Beethoven sonata, and has two fugues: after a mournful *Arioso dolente*, the brighter fugue appears, in ascending fourths; then it ends abruptly, drops down a half-step from A-flat major to G minor, and the Arioso appears, marked *perdendo la forze* ("losing strength") in Italian and *Ermattet, klagend* ("exhausted, lamenting") in German, and the melody of the Arioso starts faltering a bit. Then at the end of the 2nd Arioso, tolling G major chords and a slow arpeggio lead to the return of the fugue, but inverted (descending fourths instead of ascending) and Beethoven writes *poco a poco di nuovo vivente* ("little by little with new life") then in a clever bit of composition flips the fugue subject right side up, leading to a brilliant coda where the polyphony of the fugues end, and the theme rings out in triumph.
I played the op. 110 for my senior recital in college, decades ago. Sadly, the fugues are long gone from my fingers, but the first movement remains one of my favorite pieces ever written and I play it regularly. It's so warm and glowing, all the way through.
Feels like I'm visiting an old friend when I play it.
The first movement is also gorgeous, and so warm! I especially love the first theme as it’s, in contrast to much of late Beethoven, so simple and unadorned.
I also love that the counterpoint in the development is gentle with some darker patches, sort of hinting at the more daring fugues in the final movement. Easily one of my favourite Beethoven sonatas (along with op. 14/2, 22, 31/3, 78, 81a, and the last 5 or so)
It's funny, lots of people just adore op. 14/2 but it just doesn't click with me.
I played op. 31/3 two years ago, and wasn't sure I liked the first movement (scherzo and finale were always great) but the more I played it the more it grew on me. It's just so damned *cheerful.* The whole sonata is, but the 1st movement is especially so.
My top 3 are op. 110, Appassionata, op. 109, and right behind are 81a, 10/3, 111, 101, 31/2, 31/3, 26. That's my S- and A-tier Beethoven, respectively.
14/2 is so great — the first movement is just kinda beautiful, the second is the funniest thing Beethoven ever wrote, and the scherzo (which is in rondo form) is filled with fun rhythmic displacement which can make it hard to tell what meter you’re in, try and give it another shot!
And like you point out, the first movement of the 31/3, especially the second theme, is just pure joy. Scherzo is a blast, minuet is gorgeous, and the fourth movement is just so carefree and fun. I think from these two sonatas, we can’t undermine Beethoven’s humour!
The scherzo finale of 14/2 is a great example of Beethoven's humor. The first movement just doesn't connect with me. I played both of the op. 14 sonatas and I prefer 14/1, although I realize I am distinctly in the minority on that.
The other small-scale early sonata of Beethoven's that's really great is 10/2, especially the finale.
I like Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues maybe as much as The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Another work in the 24 preludes and fugues format is Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis. I'm not sure it's in the same space for me personally as Bach or Shostakovich, but it's interesting and a good example of a modernist variation on the idea.
Me as well. Favorites are 1, 4, 7, 8, 15, 16, and 24. I can only play a couple of them (15 is \*insanely hard\*). 1 in C major is really cool in that there are no accidentals at all, so it's white keys only, but the fugue subject enters on each note of the C major scale over the course of the fugue, creating some weird harmonies when it starts in Locrian mode or Lydian mode.
Some that haven’t been mentioned yet:
The overture to Elijah (Mendelssohn) is a badass, moody fugue. Franck’s Prelude, Chorale & Fugue is epic. There’s a really great fugue as the finale of Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No 7. Shostakovich’s 24 are amazing; take your pick. Mozart’s C minor fugue K426 is amazing but I love his neo-baroque works K394 and K399 both of which have badass fugues (394 has all kinds of fun devices at play). Rubinstein’s 2nd quartet starts with a cool fugue. Mendelssohn’s 12th string symphony starts with a baroque overture that has an amazing chromatic fugue whose subject is extracted from the slow introduction - also lots of devices at play, and written by a 14-year-old (or maybe younger??).
I really like the foreboding, "dark night of the soul" fugue in the first movement of Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Bartok.
It's so cryptic, broody and angular, not to mention extremely chromatic, yet you can easily discern each entry of the theme, and its gradual crescendo is extremely expressive.
The two huge fugues at the end of the 'Gloria' and 'Credo' in Beethoven's *Missa Solemnis* are spectacular.
Here's the demented fugue at the end of the 'Gloria'. Brace yourself:
[https://youtu.be/aH7cehROJNA?si=Ety4aX2F6VGNoDEI&t=1158](https://youtu.be/aH7cehROJNA?si=Ety4aX2F6VGNoDEI&t=1158)
It's one of the most exhilarating things ever written. Beethoven actually has the orchestra end a half-bar early leaving the choir to shout out the single word, 'Gloria!', unaccompanied at the end.
Goodness me, what a piece of music it is.
Yes, Beethoven didn't give a damn about the singers, lol. Incredibly taxing music, especially for the sopranos!
Incredible music though. I was obsessed with the *Missa Solemnis* for a little while, when I was in my late teens. I listened to it hundreds of times and so many recordings. Monstrous, terrifying, glorious music.
and \*really\* hard to sing. Especially the one on Et Vitam Venturi in the Credo, when it comes back at twice the original tempo. Beethoven was hard on vocalists.
If you're Beethoven, you get really really mad that Reicha [dared to call this a fugue](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wT7zTCa_RX0&pp=ygURcmVpY2hhIGZ1Z3VlIGlsaWM%3D).
Schumann was a little more generous: he said something like "Reicha's unusual ideas should not be dismissed entirely".
[Here's a comment of mine from 11 years ago, listing some of my favs](https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/1rj5gx/comment/cdnx9mu/). You can obviously skip the Bach. They still mostly stand.
Brahms wrote several, the Requiem as mentioned but also last movement of "Hymne" is a full fugue (see my edition on CPDL). Also organ composers kept writing them. Particularly Reger and Rheinberger. Check them out. Strict fungal form following "Baroque rules" but with chromatic late 19th century harmony.
Beethoven Sonata in A Major Op. 101
The fugue leading in to the recap of the finale is earth shattering. As a pianist that’s played a ton of music, nothing excites me more than playing that fugue and finishing out the piece.
Got to actually use it once on a Bösendorfer in Santa Barbara. The festival had three extended range pianos so I actually got to practice adding it. Definitely a great memory!
oh wow, you mean the E below the A0 that's the lowest note on a standard 88-key piano?
I imagine that chord in the finale of op. 101 played an octave lower would really rattle your bones.
Yes, I was literally salivating while playing it (read: drooling) 🤤
The only issue I had with it was the resolution can only be so emphatic, so I actually had to let off that bassy beast so it didn’t just sputter out on the cadence, which really only made it more exciting. I can’t overstate enough how holding back your tempo and pulling off a sudden sfp cresc. to fff makes this piece just elevate.
For all those that mentioned Hammerklavier, the only way to properly perform Hammerklavier is to play 101 before it and go into it attacca. There is something revelatory about going from the A Major ending. Bum bum bum bum, Bum, BUM! Hammeklavier, Bb: da Dum, da Dum da da Dum Dum. Just connects.
The insane fugue toward the end of Samuil Feinberg's Piano Sonata No. 3 (1917)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCslDmwzWhE&t=990s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCslDmwzWhE&t=990s)
Es ist das Heil uns kommen her - Brahms
Fugue from Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue - Franck
Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot - Alkan (intro and rondo form, section C is a fugue)
Ives Movement 3 of Symphony no 4 is pretty good (which by the way is unusually tonal, considering its by Ives lol). also, sorabji opus clavicembalisticum
The prelude to Wagner’s Meistersinger is a famous one. A lot of my favorite passages of Beethoven are fugal - 2nd movement of the Eroica and several in the 9th.
Both Brahms and Mendelssohn have so many that it's hard to choose. But here are some I really like:
1. Brahms' Requiem, mvmts 2, 3, and 6 have fugues.
2. The opening of Elijah by Mendelssohn
3. The Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem, and also the stretto and then fugue in the Domine Jesu movement.
Final movement of Mendelssohn's *Elijah* "Lord Our Creator, How Excellent Thy Name Is" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJ1IxElx6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJ1IxElx6k)
Classical: [Mozart K. 546](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQz55_Uvbgs)
Romantic: [Dohnányi Op. 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdx-AYAnbFk)
Modern: [Shostakovich Op. 87 No. 14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9JDqLGTFA)
Postmodern: [Giovanni Dettori - Lady Gaga Fugue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu5ZE8HrTAM)
Written by AI in 2007: [Emily Howell - From Darkness, Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK_IlYxdIik)
Maruice Durufle's Fugue from the Prelude & Fugue on the name Alain. While it is a very difficult work, it sounds less so. The themes are very clearly laid out and heard. It is not atonal, and has a melancholic feel as it is a lament to the death of the young French composer Jehan Alain, who was killed fighting in the French Resistance during WWII. It starts off slow and fairly quiet, but builds. Still the theme is never obscured.
In this recording the Fugue starts at 6:24 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Elaz-4y6o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Elaz-4y6o)
It's not a fugue as such but a fugato i.e. the start of a fugue but without the episodes, etc. and, in this case, so unexpected. From the final movement of Mozart's F major piano concerto, No. 19, K 459.
The movement is built on two separate themes and halfway through Mozart decides to combine them together into a double fugato, because when you're a genius, why not?
[https://youtu.be/BeemIt-u23w?si=MtnlJLW-A0-\_mPAB&t=1494](https://youtu.be/BeemIt-u23w?si=MtnlJLW-A0-_mPAB&t=1494)
It's one of Mozart's most astonishing strokes of creativity, especially given how *weird* it would've sounded in a concerto in Vienna in 1784. This was church music. This was old-fashioned. This was the music of a bygone era, and Mozart made it live again.
And staying with Mozart, one of the greatest fugues from the second half of the 18th century is the huge fugue in F minor that Mozart reluctantly wrote for a 'mechanical organ', although better known today in Busoni's masterly transcription for four-hands at piano:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY76O-fxcPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY76O-fxcPM)
I'd actually argue that this is the greatest fugue written between the death of Bach and Beethoven.
The finale of Mozart’s string quartet K. 387 is fugal, coming out of a theme of just four notes. It is one of my favorites of anything Mozart had written.
I have two fugues iI love: Ravel's fugue in "Le tombeau de Couperin" César Franck's fugue in "Prélude, fugue et variation"
Ravel for me too! However, I also like the fugue from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Short but nice. Oh and of course, Grosse Fuge.
I came here to say Ravel as well!
Based
No one's mentioned the finale of Beethoven's op. 110 piano sonata yet, so I will. It's my favorite Beethoven sonata, and has two fugues: after a mournful *Arioso dolente*, the brighter fugue appears, in ascending fourths; then it ends abruptly, drops down a half-step from A-flat major to G minor, and the Arioso appears, marked *perdendo la forze* ("losing strength") in Italian and *Ermattet, klagend* ("exhausted, lamenting") in German, and the melody of the Arioso starts faltering a bit. Then at the end of the 2nd Arioso, tolling G major chords and a slow arpeggio lead to the return of the fugue, but inverted (descending fourths instead of ascending) and Beethoven writes *poco a poco di nuovo vivente* ("little by little with new life") then in a clever bit of composition flips the fugue subject right side up, leading to a brilliant coda where the polyphony of the fugues end, and the theme rings out in triumph.
Such a joy to play the whole movement start to finish — starts with desolation and ends in ecstasy
I played the op. 110 for my senior recital in college, decades ago. Sadly, the fugues are long gone from my fingers, but the first movement remains one of my favorite pieces ever written and I play it regularly. It's so warm and glowing, all the way through. Feels like I'm visiting an old friend when I play it.
The first movement is also gorgeous, and so warm! I especially love the first theme as it’s, in contrast to much of late Beethoven, so simple and unadorned. I also love that the counterpoint in the development is gentle with some darker patches, sort of hinting at the more daring fugues in the final movement. Easily one of my favourite Beethoven sonatas (along with op. 14/2, 22, 31/3, 78, 81a, and the last 5 or so)
It's funny, lots of people just adore op. 14/2 but it just doesn't click with me. I played op. 31/3 two years ago, and wasn't sure I liked the first movement (scherzo and finale were always great) but the more I played it the more it grew on me. It's just so damned *cheerful.* The whole sonata is, but the 1st movement is especially so. My top 3 are op. 110, Appassionata, op. 109, and right behind are 81a, 10/3, 111, 101, 31/2, 31/3, 26. That's my S- and A-tier Beethoven, respectively.
14/2 is so great — the first movement is just kinda beautiful, the second is the funniest thing Beethoven ever wrote, and the scherzo (which is in rondo form) is filled with fun rhythmic displacement which can make it hard to tell what meter you’re in, try and give it another shot! And like you point out, the first movement of the 31/3, especially the second theme, is just pure joy. Scherzo is a blast, minuet is gorgeous, and the fourth movement is just so carefree and fun. I think from these two sonatas, we can’t undermine Beethoven’s humour!
The scherzo finale of 14/2 is a great example of Beethoven's humor. The first movement just doesn't connect with me. I played both of the op. 14 sonatas and I prefer 14/1, although I realize I am distinctly in the minority on that. The other small-scale early sonata of Beethoven's that's really great is 10/2, especially the finale.
10/2 is also fantastic, had a great time learning it last year
Schostakowitsch Prelude and fugues the hole album. I played a few of them but most are out of my skill level
I like Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues maybe as much as The Well-Tempered Clavier. Another work in the 24 preludes and fugues format is Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis. I'm not sure it's in the same space for me personally as Bach or Shostakovich, but it's interesting and a good example of a modernist variation on the idea.
Me as well. Favorites are 1, 4, 7, 8, 15, 16, and 24. I can only play a couple of them (15 is \*insanely hard\*). 1 in C major is really cool in that there are no accidentals at all, so it's white keys only, but the fugue subject enters on each note of the C major scale over the course of the fugue, creating some weird harmonies when it starts in Locrian mode or Lydian mode.
The B flat minor Fugue is really something.
Final movement of Jupiter symphony by Mozart, so much incredible energy.
Beethoven, Grosse Fuge for string quartet
Some that haven’t been mentioned yet: The overture to Elijah (Mendelssohn) is a badass, moody fugue. Franck’s Prelude, Chorale & Fugue is epic. There’s a really great fugue as the finale of Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No 7. Shostakovich’s 24 are amazing; take your pick. Mozart’s C minor fugue K426 is amazing but I love his neo-baroque works K394 and K399 both of which have badass fugues (394 has all kinds of fun devices at play). Rubinstein’s 2nd quartet starts with a cool fugue. Mendelssohn’s 12th string symphony starts with a baroque overture that has an amazing chromatic fugue whose subject is extracted from the slow introduction - also lots of devices at play, and written by a 14-year-old (or maybe younger??).
Oh how did I forget the openong of Elijah? Yes
Yes! The opening of Elijah. Magnificent
The last thing Verdi ever wrote, the fugue from the Finale of Falstaff, ‘Tutto nel mondo è burla’ (Everything in the world is a joke)
And DAMN, it is hard!
I really like the foreboding, "dark night of the soul" fugue in the first movement of Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Bartok. It's so cryptic, broody and angular, not to mention extremely chromatic, yet you can easily discern each entry of the theme, and its gradual crescendo is extremely expressive.
^^^ One of the most incredible pieces of music out there
Fugue at end of Brahms' Variation on a Theme of Handel Fugue at end Britten's young Person's Guide
Yes! These were two that immediately came to my mind too.
The two huge fugues at the end of the 'Gloria' and 'Credo' in Beethoven's *Missa Solemnis* are spectacular. Here's the demented fugue at the end of the 'Gloria'. Brace yourself: [https://youtu.be/aH7cehROJNA?si=Ety4aX2F6VGNoDEI&t=1158](https://youtu.be/aH7cehROJNA?si=Ety4aX2F6VGNoDEI&t=1158) It's one of the most exhilarating things ever written. Beethoven actually has the orchestra end a half-bar early leaving the choir to shout out the single word, 'Gloria!', unaccompanied at the end. Goodness me, what a piece of music it is.
Yes!!! These ones take my breath away (almost as much as the breath of the singers)
Yes, Beethoven didn't give a damn about the singers, lol. Incredibly taxing music, especially for the sopranos! Incredible music though. I was obsessed with the *Missa Solemnis* for a little while, when I was in my late teens. I listened to it hundreds of times and so many recordings. Monstrous, terrifying, glorious music.
and \*really\* hard to sing. Especially the one on Et Vitam Venturi in the Credo, when it comes back at twice the original tempo. Beethoven was hard on vocalists.
Reicha’s fugues are really cool
If you're Beethoven, you get really really mad that Reicha [dared to call this a fugue](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wT7zTCa_RX0&pp=ygURcmVpY2hhIGZ1Z3VlIGlsaWM%3D). Schumann was a little more generous: he said something like "Reicha's unusual ideas should not be dismissed entirely".
[Here's a comment of mine from 11 years ago, listing some of my favs](https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/1rj5gx/comment/cdnx9mu/). You can obviously skip the Bach. They still mostly stand.
Beethoven Hammerklavier sonata Op. 109 last movement is relentless and exhilarating.
op. 106. Op. 109 is Sonata no. 30, and doesn't have any fugues in it (the only late sonata of the five to have no fugues or fugato passages).
Doh. That's embarrassing. Yes 106.
I suppose Walton’s Spitfire Prelude and Fugue is the first that comes to mind, pretty effective use of fugal writing in an unabashedly populist vein
Brahms' German Requiem has a couple.
The last few minutes of the third section in the German Requiem is wonderful, grip your armchair, hold your breath stuff. I never tire of it
Fugue in e minor by shostakovich and fugue in e minor by mendelssohn
Brahms wrote several, the Requiem as mentioned but also last movement of "Hymne" is a full fugue (see my edition on CPDL). Also organ composers kept writing them. Particularly Reger and Rheinberger. Check them out. Strict fungal form following "Baroque rules" but with chromatic late 19th century harmony.
Beethoven Sonata in A Major Op. 101 The fugue leading in to the recap of the finale is earth shattering. As a pianist that’s played a ton of music, nothing excites me more than playing that fugue and finishing out the piece.
Contra E!
Got to actually use it once on a Bösendorfer in Santa Barbara. The festival had three extended range pianos so I actually got to practice adding it. Definitely a great memory!
oh wow, you mean the E below the A0 that's the lowest note on a standard 88-key piano? I imagine that chord in the finale of op. 101 played an octave lower would really rattle your bones.
Yes, I was literally salivating while playing it (read: drooling) 🤤 The only issue I had with it was the resolution can only be so emphatic, so I actually had to let off that bassy beast so it didn’t just sputter out on the cadence, which really only made it more exciting. I can’t overstate enough how holding back your tempo and pulling off a sudden sfp cresc. to fff makes this piece just elevate. For all those that mentioned Hammerklavier, the only way to properly perform Hammerklavier is to play 101 before it and go into it attacca. There is something revelatory about going from the A Major ending. Bum bum bum bum, Bum, BUM! Hammeklavier, Bb: da Dum, da Dum da da Dum Dum. Just connects.
Stravinsky symphony of psalms mvt 2
The fugue at the end of Verdi’s Requiem
Opening movement of Beethoven’s C# minor string quartet (#14, Op. 131).
Fugue in Eroica
The second movement of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's string sextet in A major is incredible
Kirye from Mozart's requiem is super famous and not baroque
The insane fugue toward the end of Samuil Feinberg's Piano Sonata No. 3 (1917) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCslDmwzWhE&t=990s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCslDmwzWhE&t=990s)
The A major fugue from Shostakovich's set of 24 preludes and fugues. It's audible sunshine and always gets me in a good mood.
Yes!!! … I only wish it wasn’t so dang hard to play…
Barber piano sonata, Szymanowski piano sonata 2, Feinberg piano sonata 3, Liszt sonata, Medtner sonata Minacciosa, Godowsky Passacaglia, Busoni Fantasia Contrappunistica, Schubert Wanderer Fantasy, Alkan Grande sonata, Reger Telemann variations
Es ist das Heil uns kommen her - Brahms Fugue from Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue - Franck Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot - Alkan (intro and rondo form, section C is a fugue)
Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 First Movement.
I came here to say this. The fugato in that movement is fire.
Username checks out.
Ives Movement 3 of Symphony no 4 is pretty good (which by the way is unusually tonal, considering its by Ives lol). also, sorabji opus clavicembalisticum
The final movement of Bloch's Concerto Grosso no.1
Off the top of my head, Duruflé’s fugue from the prelude and fugue on “Alain” and the last movement of Hindemith’s 3rd piano sonata
The prelude to Wagner’s Meistersinger is a famous one. A lot of my favorite passages of Beethoven are fugal - 2nd movement of the Eroica and several in the 9th.
Second movement of Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis
Chopin, fugue in a minor
Both Brahms and Mendelssohn have so many that it's hard to choose. But here are some I really like: 1. Brahms' Requiem, mvmts 2, 3, and 6 have fugues. 2. The opening of Elijah by Mendelssohn 3. The Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem, and also the stretto and then fugue in the Domine Jesu movement.
The one at the end of Godowsky’s Passacaglia on Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. It’s massive
Bloch concerto grosso fugue, Ives symphony 4 fugue
Haydn’s got a few kickass ones in his string quartets Op. 20
Final movement of Mendelssohn's *Elijah* "Lord Our Creator, How Excellent Thy Name Is" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJ1IxElx6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJ1IxElx6k)
2nd movement of Hindemith's "Kontzertmusik" for strings and brass. https://youtu.be/XnRK1SCglog?feature=shared
Classical: [Mozart K. 546](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQz55_Uvbgs) Romantic: [Dohnányi Op. 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdx-AYAnbFk) Modern: [Shostakovich Op. 87 No. 14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9JDqLGTFA) Postmodern: [Giovanni Dettori - Lady Gaga Fugue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu5ZE8HrTAM) Written by AI in 2007: [Emily Howell - From Darkness, Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK_IlYxdIik)
Czerny fugues
Maruice Durufle's Fugue from the Prelude & Fugue on the name Alain. While it is a very difficult work, it sounds less so. The themes are very clearly laid out and heard. It is not atonal, and has a melancholic feel as it is a lament to the death of the young French composer Jehan Alain, who was killed fighting in the French Resistance during WWII. It starts off slow and fairly quiet, but builds. Still the theme is never obscured. In this recording the Fugue starts at 6:24 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Elaz-4y6o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Elaz-4y6o)
The one from the main menu of the Katamari game
It's not a fugue as such but a fugato i.e. the start of a fugue but without the episodes, etc. and, in this case, so unexpected. From the final movement of Mozart's F major piano concerto, No. 19, K 459. The movement is built on two separate themes and halfway through Mozart decides to combine them together into a double fugato, because when you're a genius, why not? [https://youtu.be/BeemIt-u23w?si=MtnlJLW-A0-\_mPAB&t=1494](https://youtu.be/BeemIt-u23w?si=MtnlJLW-A0-_mPAB&t=1494) It's one of Mozart's most astonishing strokes of creativity, especially given how *weird* it would've sounded in a concerto in Vienna in 1784. This was church music. This was old-fashioned. This was the music of a bygone era, and Mozart made it live again. And staying with Mozart, one of the greatest fugues from the second half of the 18th century is the huge fugue in F minor that Mozart reluctantly wrote for a 'mechanical organ', although better known today in Busoni's masterly transcription for four-hands at piano: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY76O-fxcPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY76O-fxcPM) I'd actually argue that this is the greatest fugue written between the death of Bach and Beethoven.
Final movement of Vaughan Williams' 4th Symphony!
Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra - the second section is a fugue.
The last act of Falstaff by Verdi has a great fugue.
Almost anything by Hindemith.
Bach's offering Ricercar a 6, impressive rhythm
The finale of Mozart’s string quartet K. 387 is fugal, coming out of a theme of just four notes. It is one of my favorites of anything Mozart had written.
Gulda Fugue for piano, it sounds like Jazz and it seems really hard
So You Want to Write a Fugue by Glenn Gould Was this a joke? https://youtu.be/pHW1I8T0caI?si=XJNhi5OG4aFsiHIe
Saint-Saens 2nd Symphony
without a doubt either groose fugue or the finale of hammerklavier for me
Fugue from medtner sonata minacciosa, fugue from sorabji prelude interlude fugue
Definitely chopins fugue lol
The short little fugue section of the Liszt Sonata is probably the only section of the sonata I like.
Beethoven last sonatas
Beethoven Hammerklavier last movement. Also have to mention the little fugue section from Liszt's Sonata in b minor and Beethoven's Grosse Fugue.
I know it's really popular, but Bach's fugue in G minor (the little fugue)