Goldberg Variations

[steinwayguy]

Who do you like for Bach's Goldberg Variations?

[apion]

Who do you like for Bach's Goldberg Variations?

Glenn Gould.  The Gouldmeister.  Glenn baby.  Glenn-a-rino.

[fred smalls]

Glenn Gould.  The Gouldmeister.  Glenn baby.  Glenn-a-rino.

Without a doubt!!! Glenn gould is the best at the goldberg variations. Definately 1955 for me, but of course each is incredibly good!

[pseudopianist]

Without a doubt!!! Glenn gould is the best at the goldberg variations. Definately 1955 for me, but of course each is incredibly good!

Agreed. Other than the Goldberg variations I can't stand Goulds interpetation.

[LVB op.57]

chen pi-hsien
i really can't stand gould's playing at all. so mechanical

[pianowelsh]

Angela Hewitt, Glenn Gould & Daniel Martyn- Lewis amogst others.

[gkatele]

I always thought that Gould's two recordings of the Golbergs were the benchmarks by which others should be judged. The '55 performance is full of energy. Full of spice and joy. The '82 performance is that of a mature man who has the patina of years applied to his musicianship. I always found it more than a bit ironic that Gould died of a stroke (in his 50's) just after recording the second set (and before it was released).

However, there are others.

After listenting the the PT50 (the US National Public Radio's collection of the 50 pieces of classical music that you must own - there's another thread on that here), I was drawn to Murray Perahia's performance of the Goldbergs. They are totally different. Not as mechanical. They lilt, they sing, they have unbounded joy. For example, Goulds version of the quodlibet sounds, to me, at least, much like a march. Perahia makes it sound like a drinking song (which it is based on). Compare the 1st variation. Gould pounds out those bass notes, Perahia has them accent the music. Gould's analysis is based on rhythms going from variation to variation (he said so in the interview enclosed with the CD). Perahia, however, makes them sound like dances (which they are!).

Having rambled about that, there's another performance that grabs me: Andras Schiff. His reading is to perform all the repeats. The amazing things is that when he does the repeats he adds the ornamentation - all the trills, mordents and stuff. It's my understanding that that was the custom in Bach's time. The repeats were there, in part, at least, for the soloist to show off his virtuosity. Schiff does that perfectly.

The other nice thing about Perahia and Schiff is that neither of them can be heard humming with the music.

Just my uneducated opinion.

Best regards,


George

[xvimbi]

Gould the standard for the Goldberg Variations? Hardly! If anything he showed that there are no standards when it comes to Baroque music. Others play the GV just as "well", i.e. there are lots of people who like them. If you want to get a fresh perspective on the GV, check out Martin Stadtfeld's version (Sony). This guy is amazing when it comes to Bach. He might well be the next "Gould", although I'm sure he doesn't like such comparisons at all.

[gkatele]

Gould the standard for the Goldberg Variations? Hardly! If anything he showed that there are no standards when it comes to Baroque music.

No kidding! Just listen to how he plays the G minor prelude from Book I of the WTC. The trills are, well, interesting. The score just says "trill" throughout the opening measure.  Gould starts the trill with what almost sound like 1/16 notes, and then accellerates it throughtout the measure.

Is it right?

Who knows? But it's certainly unlike anything I've heard elsewhere.

But, somehow, I think that if Sebatian Bach were listening to him play, he'd take a bite of his sausage, take a swig of his dark heavy German beer, smile, and say "Interesting, but that's not what I wrote."

Then he'd take his powdered wig off and throw it at Glenn Gould!

George

[steinwayguy]

Yeah, I was asking because I really don't like anything by Glenn Gould...

[Musicag]

Favorite?

Rosen
Lifschitz
Schiff
Koroliov

[thracozaag]

  My ex-gf:

https://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=7104

  I wrote the liner notes

koji (STSD)

[sznitzeln]

I have heard (seen on DVD) the second recording of gould... That is just perfect... Continuos phrasing of all voices... every note is part of the music. I concider it one of the top performances I have seen. I really like the first variation... plusating joy The voices sound almost human.

I have also compared it to Perahia, Yudina, some other guy, all of them massacrated the music in my opinion. I am still looking for some other nice recording...

I agree with you most of Goulds non-Bach recordings suck, and even some of the Bach recordings... his Mozart sonatas make me sick... but there is one exception, in the Salzburg '59 recital he plays the 10:th sonata nicely.

I heard a few bars of Wanda Landowska playing the "Gouldberg" variations... my first impression was very good.

[Hmoll]

Sergey Schepkin
Schiff
Also, there's a little known but very good recording by a pianist named Sean Duggan.

[rohansahai]

Ivo Janssen=>Dutch Pianist=>FANTASTIC RECORDING !!!

[hodi]

i just DETEST how glenn gould plays (maybe except for the bach piano concertos)
i bought his well tempered clavier and returned it to the shop the same day
yak! so mechnical, so much stactto and he sings! it totally ruins the recordings (the singing)

[BoliverAllmon]

i just DETEST how glenn gould plays (maybe except for the bach piano concertos)
i bought his well tempered clavier and returned it to the shop the same day
yak! so mechnical, so much stactto and he sings! it totally ruins the recordings (the singing)

I deal with the singing. To me it shows that he is really working on a cantabile style.

boliver

[faulty_damper]

I deal with the singing. To me it shows that he is really working on a cantabile style.

boliver