Piano Forum

The Goldberg Variations have many, many challenges, of which fingering and hand-crossing are just the beginning.  These, of course, are just tools to create the best, and clearest voice-leading, which this piece demands.

Echoing a helpful suggestion above - I too use the Henle edition, but alter its fingerings and keep my 'real' fingerings copied down in another volume, the Kirkpatrick-Schirmer.

That's because the Henle fingerings, though helpful sometimes, are often too fussy and call for turning the thumb when it's not necessary - simplify and create your own.  Each variation takes a rather deep study before you even begin practicing.

But after a deep study to begin, my experience is I still have to go back and change fingerings, even two or three times, after I've tried what seemed to be the best version at the outset.  Moral of the story: you can't really know until you work with your hands on the music, to see what comes out and what the obstacles are - and to test the results with your ear.

Patience, patience, patience.

On the very difficult passage you're asking about, just before the repeat in Var. I: I carefully worked out a fingering that avoided hand crossing and practiced it for weeks.  I could play it in tempo, but it never really sounded right - the voice-leading and rhythmic emphasis is compromised.  So then I started all over again practicing hand crossing, using the same pattern seen throughout the variation - keeping an octave in one position and turning the 2nd finger over the thumb to play the 10th (don't apply this slavishly either, but it's a clue). 

Keeping accurate voice-leading is everything: hand crossing assures that you'll keep voices clear, which has to be the primary goal of the performer.

The process of trying a 'trick' fingering to avoid crossing and then surrendering to the more difficult hand-crossing original voice leading is, for me, a temptation that I've pursued in several other variations as well, particularly #5, which is very challenging.   

It seemed impossible until I watched Gould's DVD.  That's a big help: watching Gould's DVD and slowing it down frame-by-frame, which doesn't show everything, but gives you a lot of clues.

So far, there is no great 'performing' edition of the Goldbergs with complete discussions of fingering problems and ornamentation.

Btw, if you ornament the Aria according to the established 'rules' of Baroque ornamentation, it sounds all wrong.  No one plays it that way. 

Just another challenge on the steep mountain path offered by this most sublime of keyboard masterpieces.

On harpsichord don't miss Gustav Leonhardt, nor Landowska, who alone (I almost said 'single-handedly') brought the piece back into the mainstream repertoire.

On piano do NOT miss Gould's live 1957 Salzburg performance CD, an Austrian import that's rarely available in the US unless you track it down.  It's the greatest version of the piece ever played on the piano.