Piano Forum

I liked the ornamentation and was wondering if you planned and rehearsed it before recording. I know that ideally performers during the Baroque era were expected to spontaneously ornament the music, but in my experience, doing so in faster pieces that are so dependent on a reliable fingering for consistent execution is very difficult and can be disruptive.

Are you familiar with the Kirkpatrick edition of the Goldberg? If not I think you’ll find it a fascinating addition to your library. His rearrangements of some of the more difficult variations are quite helpful (no notes get left out), so unless you absolutely refuse to “compromise” by “taking the easy way out,” give them a try. Of course some pianists have managed to perform the entire sequence on one keyboard------have you seen Gould’s DVD of his second “take” on the piece? For myself, I play some as written and others as “facilitated.” As a result, I have them well ingrained in my hands and I’m perhaps too lazy to relearn (or attempt to relearn) the “impossible” ones.

In any case, it’s nice to know that you have more on your mind than Chopin (not that one couldn’t explore his works for a lifetime). Good luck with tackling the rest of this formidable music.