When the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin selected The Art of Fugue for a programme to mark its 25th anniversary, the decision was not based simply on the magnificent piece of music with which Johann Sebastian Bach crowned his life’s work. For Stephan Mai, the ensemble’s principal violinist, Bach’s composition represents a “heavenly democracy”, in which “all players can think and speak as they please, aloud or quietly to themselves, for they will not interfere with anyone else. Each player is required at all times. Even during the pauses.” The Akademie für Alte Musik plays its own arrangement of Bach’s work, sharing out the 18 counterpoints among a number of spatially distinct instrumental groupings. During the recording of the concert given on 28 November 2007 at the Radialsystem in Berlin, the ensemble granted director Uli Aumüller complete freedom of movement and intimacy.