The nonet Art of Fugue plays perfectly at Lincoln Center

Bach's games aren't what makes his music great. The interpolations, numerology and acrostics aren't the brilliance. It's the beauty under which they're hidden that makes his music matter. But The Art of Fugue is a puzzle that demands to be solved before it can be performed. With no prescribed instrumentation, just four interwoven voices, and a 'missing' conclusion, the set of 14 fugues and four canons, all in the key of D minor, can't be performed without first answering its questions. Samuel Baron addressed the piece in 1960 with an expansive arrangement for string quartet and wind quintet which occupied the whole of the program at a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert on Sunday.

The first fugue began with the strings, stating the central motif, one violin, then the other, cello then viola, the second quartet lying in wait in the outer semi-circle. The second fugue introduced the oboe and bassoon in what felt like a deft bit of editing, even as they had been sitting there in plain sight. Then and every time the back line (filled out by clarinet, flute and horn) came in, it was a gust of fresh air. It's ensemble music, not soloist, but the elegance of the two double reeds was especially appreciable.

With the fourth fugue, Baron's arrangement of Bach's magnificent temple of counterpoint grew more fluid, quartet and quintet morphing into one another, new groupings emerging from the slow swirl. Instrumental doubling of parts vulcanized the complexity of the counterpoint. It wasn't just four voices anymore, it was four concrete proposals, the playing spirited and on point across the board.

Baron wasn't the first to address the riddles of Bach's fugue. It's been approached numerous times in many ways and many different instrumentations. Some interpreters have tacked other Bach works onto it to provide resolution. Others have let it fall silent mid-phrase. The latter is a dramatic ploy, and an effective one, even while it reinforces the fiction that the master died while writing it.

Still others have taken the bold initiative to compose their own resolution. This is (in my opinion) the best solution, following a theory that Bach wrote the piece for his sons to complete, as if to say, all the information you need is here, draw the logical conclusion. And after all, who but his sons was going to play it? Bach was rarely performed in his day by anyone outside his circle.

As per tradition, or as per one tradition, Baron follows the CPE Bach way out of the missing ending. Upon its original, posthumous publishing, Bach’s son attached the organ chorale Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, BWV 668, as a concluding section. Baron adheres to the practice. The ensemble stopped short on the edge of the final, incomplete phrase, paused for a second or two and then proceeded, employing all of the instruments although, again, it was the soft profundo of Marc Goldberg’s bassoon that captivated, providing perhaps too perfect an ending to the evening.