Superb Bach from Lang Lang

[antongould]

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... what on earth does 'envy' have to do with a dislike of a particular performer's approach?

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Indeed

[french frank]

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... what on earth does 'envy' have to do with a dislike of a particular performer's approach?

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Yes - I think I made it clear that I liked his Schumann - just not his Bach (such as I heard). There might have been more fireworks with the Variations, but I didn't like the Aria. Slow, I don't mind (though GG falls asleep at the keyboard on one recording), but slow and stately is my taste, not slow and dreamy.

[Bryn]

. . . slow and stately is my taste, not slow and dreamy.

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...clear_Medicine

[Padraig]

Yes - I think I made it clear that I liked his Schumann - just not his Bach (such as I heard). There might have been more fireworks with the Variations, but I didn't like the Aria. Slow, I don't mind (though GG falls asleep at the keyboard on one recording), but slow and stately is my taste, not slow and dreamy.

Lang Lang said, though, in a version I heard, that Bach wanted it to be relaxed and sleep inducing. . . so presumably that was the effect he was aiming for. Maybe he was remembering GG! And GG has put his distinctive mark on the piece - for ever I'd say. Which is why 'slow and dreamy' does not seem right to me either. But I suffer from going along with whatever version I'm listening to, and I admire any pianist who masters Bach's keyboard works, not least the Goldbergs. I should say that I have several versions but as yet no 'favourite' - I would not be so bold.

[french frank]

Lang Lang said, though, in a version I heard, that Bach wanted it to be relaxed and sleep inducing.

I'm usually a sucker for a good backstory (Süssmayr the only version of the Requiem I ever play), but I'm with the sceptics on this in doubting the story about Goldberg playing it to the insomniac Count Kaiserling. Yes, I'm sure if you play it in a dreamy, sleep-inducing way, it could help to send someone to sleep - though the story was that the Count wanted a work to 'cheer him up' during his sleepless nights ("should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights", not send him to sleep. I'm only saying I don't like it that way and don't believe a work in this style 'should' be played that way (it certainly 'shouldn't' if it is to please me! ).

And, I do stress, I only listened to the aria on YouTube. What happens after that in this LL interpretation may be quite different: quite a few of the variations may be such as to wake the drowsy sleeper up again.

[Belgrove]

Kolesnikov’s new release on Hyperion got a decent review in last week’s Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/29/js-bach-goldberg-variations-review-pavel-kolesnikov

Anyone heard it yet?

[french frank]

Kolesnikov’s new release on Hyperion got a decent review in last week’s Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/29/js-bach-goldberg-variations-review-pavel-kolesnikov

Anyone heard it yet?

One so far

[Bryn]

There's HIPP and there's HIPP:

https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/mi/goldberg-variations

[french frank]

There's HIPP and there's HIPP:

https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/v...erg-variations

Mega HIPP

I liked the "Related videos" - Bucky Pizzarelli demonstrates the use of a rhythm guitar

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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... what on earth does 'envy' have to do with a dislike of a particular performer's approach?

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Over the years, Lang Lang has been vilified quite a bit on this forum, and some of the comments have been unpleasant, insulting and irrelevant to his performances.

[vinteuil]

Over the years, Lang Lang has been vilified quite a bit on this forum, and some of the comments have been unpleasant, insulting and irrelevant to his performances.

... I can well believe it. But I don't think such vilification is fuelled by 'envy'.

I have an intense dislike for the piano playing of Angela Hewitt, but my dislike doesn't come from any sense of envy!

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[french frank]

I have an intense dislike for the piano playing of Angela Hewitt, but my dislike doesn't come from any sense of envy!

Whereas having heard the Lang Lang clip, I made for my Hewitt - I wanted a piano version to make a better comparison. I don't think anything too unpleasant, insulting or irrelevant has been said on this thread. If my explanations were deemed to come into that category I would be mortified.

[crb11]

The most recent Gramophone has a review of Kolesikov by Harriet Smith, which ends with "a mixed result" - the main complaint seems to be that he overinterprets it and some bits don't work. She describes it as "though, far preferable to Lang Lang's laboured reading" (it received rather more positive comments in its own review).

[Keraulophone]

the Count wanted a work to 'cheer him up' during his sleepless nights ("should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights", not send him to sleep.

Smooth and lively music to cheer up an insomniac: did the Count wish to be soothed back to sleep or entertained while awake yet again? At least with the variations, the player-physician can prescribe the smooth and dreamy variations or the more lively, cheery ones according to immediate need, or even try to play the livelier ones, such as the first, in a smoother and more subdued manner (which to some extent LL actually does). Had the work been played on a clavichord instead of a sonorous harpsichord, its pretty tinkling sounds might have been more soporific, though less entertaining.

[rauschwerk]

The most recent Gramophone has a review of Kolesikov by Harriet Smith, which ends with "a mixed result" - the main complaint seems to be that he overinterprets it and some bits don't work. She describes it as "though, far preferable to Lang Lang's laboured reading" (it received rather more positive comments in its own review).

Kolesnikov played a few variations on 'In Tune' the other day. He poked and prodded the keyboard in a manner which I found most disagreeable.