Goldberg variations, aria, no. 1,14,19,20,26

[nick]

comments welcome.

Nick

[teresa_b]

Hi nick,

I enjoyed your variations, thanks for posting.  I have never played any of these, so I can't give you anything but my basic reaction to them. 

I like your fast ones better than the slower ones.  Your clarity is excellent.  I think overall, you should think "movement and flow", as Bach's counterpoint can sort of bog down and feel as though it's meandering around instead of going somewhere.  Also, some of the bass notes sound to me too loud, and of course since Bach didn't write them for the modern grand piano, he wouldn't have ever heard these notes played on an instrument with a resounding bass.  I personally would temper those notes. 

Anyway, those are little quibbles--these are extremely challenging works!  Keep up the good work! 
Teresa

[nick]

Hi nick,

I enjoyed your variations, thanks for posting.  I have never played any of these, so I can't give you anything but my basic reaction to them. 

I like your fast ones better than the slower ones.  Your clarity is excellent.  I think overall, you should think "movement and flow", as Bach's counterpoint can sort of bog down and feel as though it's meandering around instead of going somewhere.  Also, some of the bass notes sound to me too loud, and of course since Bach didn't write them for the modern grand piano, he wouldn't have ever heard these notes played on an instrument with a resounding bass.  I personally would temper those notes. 

Anyway, those are little quibbles--these are extremely challenging works!  Keep up the good work! 
Teresa

Thanks Teresa for the kind words. I also,  when played back,  thought the left hand came out much louder then when I played it live. Tone quality not too good also as opposed to live.

Nick

[teresa_b]

Yeah, recordings have a way of making mid-range and bass louder than it really was sometimes.  My recording came out a little too soft in the treble range, so some of the higher piano notes kind of disappeared here and there.

Congrats again on taking on this Bach and doing well!  (I'm learning the Bach F- minor concerto now, and might get to revisit Mozart G Major if our chamber orchestra funding is adequate.  Anyway, I haven't done any new Bach in a while, and I'm regaining my appreciation for the difficulties of fast counterpoint.  )

Teresa

[rimbaud]

   Great job on all of these variations.  The first part of the aria seemed a little tense and had a couple of strangely accented notes.  For example, the D on beat two of measure four shouldn't be louder than the E that precedes it.  A resolution occurs there.  Minor detail.  Nonetheless, I really enjoyed.  Congrats! 
   May I ask, are you learning/performing them in any particular order--arabesques/canons/dances?  I've always wanted to study the goldberg's, it just seems like such a massive undertaking.     

[nick]

Thank you both for the compliments. Rimbaud, I agree on your point that I missed resoving the louder e with softer d. Maybe at that moment it just seemed right, don't know. And no, I just picked a few variations I liked initially, and played them in the order they were. I love many others and will get to some of them later. Now I am working on Lists Rhapsody #2. Then I really need to do Beethoven again. Miss it.

Nick

[ramseytheii]

Aria - needs more legato!  A lot more legato!  And I think you should experiment with making the trills lighter than the main melodic notes.  They are too heavy and get in the way, and also detract from the essence of the legato.  I think the left hand also could use more texture.  He notated it , true, in a way that was conventional to the Baroque, but I think it still means something.

Variation 1 - You play twice as fast as the aria (eighth notes of the aria = quarter notes of variation 1) but I think you should experiment playing the aria faster, and having the quarter note be the same in both movements.  Do I detect a hint of Gouldisms?  One of the things that made Gould so impressive, though on the surface it may sounded like he played everything the same (one otherwise knowledgable pianist friend of mine said it sounded like he played everything on the typewriter) , is that he gave everything such an amazing note-picture, or a mental image of what the music looks like.  I think you could use more of this in the sixteenth note passages especially, and in the left hand as far as the texture is concerned.  Sixteenth note passages should be heavier here, lighter here, as you want to make the phrase; or heavier here, lighter there, as you want to express the registers.  Think about it!  It will give your performance more character.

Variation 14 - Don't forget that Bach wrote staccato marks in the little trills that go up and down the keyboard.  Don't hold onto the last note.

Variation 19 - It was so weird I didn't recognize it for three bars, and I play the damn piece.  Oh well; as you wish!

Variation 20 - Sounds a bit sluggish, not the tempo but the articulation is heavy and undifferentiated.  Lighten up dude!

Variation 26 - I can't see your hands up close, but I think another kind of touch would help you play this one lighter, easier, and more buoyant.  Experiment in the moving triplet passages with a stroking touch, or as Beethoven's approach was called, "dusting the piano."  If you happen to have the DVD of Gould playing these, you can see very clearly he uses this touch in several of the fast variations (number 5, number 14, number 26 according to my memory).

Looks like you have good fingers!

Walter Ramsey