BaL 18.02.12 - Bach Goldberg Variations

[Beef Oven!]

Glenn Gould 1955 and the digital 1981 for me. Got a fine Jeno Jando on Naxos, as well.

I have the Deutsche Grammophon Mahan Esfahani on order too.

[ardcarp]

I've not heard Egarr's Goldbergs, but I find that in general he applies too much freedom of rhythm...one could call it rubato...to his solo playing.
For a piano version, it's got to be Angela Hewitt for me.

[Thropplenoggin]

Jeremy Denk.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Jeremy Denk.

[Pulcinella]

Oh dear: perhaps I need to change my forum name to Goldberg!
I have discovered 10 versions on various shelves.

Maggie Cole
Glenn Gould 1955
Glenn Gould 1981
Pierre Hantai
Angela Hewitt
Freddy Kempf (BBC Music Magazine)
Tatiana Nikolayeva
Murray Perahia
Rosalyn Tureck
Alexis Weissenberg

Time for some weeding out or comparative listening, I guess.
Predominantly piano versions, as you can see.

[DracoM]

So one post apart from the OP actually mentions Kirkpatrick, nobody else does. I really wanted to know from someone expert how suitable Kirpkpatrick's interpretations were seen to be. Am now none the wiser!!

[Thropplenoggin]

So one post apart from the OP actually mentions Kirkpatrick, nobody else does. I really wanted to know from someone expert how suitable Kirpkpatrick's interpretations were seen to be. Am now none the wiser!!

Surely you know by now that's how this forum functions!

[Pulcinella]

I've just re-discovered my CD of Ralph Kirkpatrick playing the Goldbergs.

Where might the Kirkpatrick reading rate in a survey of the work?

Somewhere in the section devoted to harpsichord not piano interpretations?

[silvestrione]

So one post apart from the OP actually mentions Kirkpatrick, nobody else does. I really wanted to know from someone expert how suitable Kirpkpatrick's interpretations were seen to be. Am now none the wiser!!

Not an expert, I'm afraid, but I learnt the piece from the Kirkpatrick LP, and it did fare well in a BAL years ago, where the reviewer played excerpts from the 'French Overture' variation, and the Quodlibet, loving both, as I did (I don't think I've come across anything since to improve on them). BUT reviewer failed him on: 1) no repeats 2) very unfortunate choice of registration for the left hand in Var. 25, the so-called 'black pearl'. It was a kind of plucked, lute-like, stop with little resonance. Spoilt the effect of that crucial variation, I came to agree.

[DracoM]

Most kind. I had wondered. You've helped a lot.

[BBMmk2]

Hey Presto!

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Harmonia%2BMundi/HMU907425%252F26

Many thanks Pulci! :)

I have Murray Perhahia as well but I thought, generally it were harpsichord recordings.

[Bryn]

On piano, tonight's 'bleeding chunks' pianist, Jeremy Denk, has already been mentioned. Let's not pass by Christophe Rousset on a 1751 Henri Hemsch harpsichord.

Oh, and another pianist not to be overlooked is Evgeni Koroliov, whether on Hänssler Cassic CD, Medici Arts DVD or even YouTube:

[kernelbogey]

Jeremy Denk.

I had not heard of him before reading this post - thanks Throps - and am now listening to the second part of his extraordinary musical journey from the Wigmore.

[ardcarp]

So one post apart from the OP actually mentions Kirkpatrick, nobody else does. I really wanted to know from someone expert how suitable Kirpkpatrick's interpretations were seen to be. Am now none the wiser!!

Kirkpatrick was probably playing on a rather robust and un-HIPP instrument...of the sort George Malcolm used, and which as a young lad I loved the sound of. Times have moved on and that sort of harpsichord doesn't seem cool right now. Maybe a harpsichord expert will join the fray and tell me I'm talking rubbish???

But I just found this:

During the 1960s Kirkpatrick made recordings of the complete harpsichord works of Johann Sebastian Bach (Archiv). The instrument he used in these recordings was always one or other of the contemporary harpsichords being made at the time by the firm of JC Neupert of Bamberg. These days such instruments are called "revival" style instruments, their features including 'inauthentic' metal frames and robust, heavy construction.

[Bryn]

I had not heard of him before reading this post - thanks Throps - and am now listening to the second part of his extraordinary musical journey from the Wigmore.

Oh do follow up on him, kb. his Beethoven/Ligeti on disc is also not to be missed. Listening tonight I find myself thinking back to 16th October 1969, also at Wigmore Hall, when John Tilbury performed his "The Sound of Music". Not whole movements on that occasion but "The material for this recital was chosen mainly by sitting at the piano and leafing through my library of piano music. ... ". I was introduced that night to so very much music I went on to investigated more thoroughly. I hope tonight's broadcast of last Saturday's Denk recital might similarly encourage others to delve deeper into the works and composers represented. Thank you Mr. Denk.