Prom 50: Bach – Goldberg Variations (22.08.15)

[Richard Tarleton]

It seems you have to sign up to read this, ff? Is it safe?

[Bryn]

No need to sign up. Just click the light grey "Close" button in the top left corner of the sign up box.

[french frank]

No need to sign up. Just click the light grey "Close" button in the top left corner of the sign up box.

Correct - the Boston Globe offers 5 articles free before you need to sign up.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks both, interesting stuff.

[french frank]

Thanks both, interesting stuff.

Yes - maybe we'll have some comments on the concert, too …

[Darkbloom]

Yes - maybe we'll have some comments on the concert, too …

After the very lacklustre Mahler earlier, I wondered what sort of state I would be in to listen to this. I suppose you could characterise Schiff as the 'Anti Glenn Gould' - I don't think he has ever been much of a fan - and his approach to Bach is essentially devotional (although perhaps I was influenced by his habit of pausing before playing, hands together as if in prayer), with no time for crowd pleasing virtuosity. I have never felt that the Goldbergs (like most sets of variations, for me) has ever been too short, so Schiff's preference for including all the repeats (despite the way he managed to give a different feel to each one) felt a little over-stretched at times, although I must admit that this could have been because I was standing in the arena. This sort of music would be better appreciated sitting down with the minimum of outside intrusions - which included, on this occasion, someone's phone (and his sweary reaction of surprise) going off about halfway through.

Schiff has a very definite way of thinking about Bach, and this is going to influence your response to his playing, however distinguished, although there was the odd occasion when things sounded a bit scruffy - understandable over such a long piece demanding intense concentration. I will have to give this another listen, but I think I probably prefer something with slightly more dramatic contrast. However, that's just not part of Schiff's musical make-up, so it's just a matter of personal preference.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes - maybe we'll have some comments on the concert, too …

I'm saving myself for when it comes on the telly

[DracoM]

Well, to my considerable surprise, I found it bland and a bit dull.
Might have to re-listen.

[french frank]

Schiff has a very definite way of thinking about Bach, and this is going to influence your response to his playing, however distinguished, although there was the odd occasion when things sounded a bit scruffy - understandable over such a long piece demanding intense concentration. I will have to give this another listen, but I think I probably prefer something with slightly more dramatic contrast. However, that's just not part of Schiff's musical make-up

Nor mine: I'll buy Schiff's performance and enjoyed every minute of it. And plenty of variety, I felt. From the dancing to the dreamy, and always with delicate precision.

[Daniel]

I'll buy Schiff's performance and enjoyed every minute of it. And plenty of variety, I felt. From the dancing to the dreamy, and always with delicate precision.

I'm looking forward to hear this, I've always found Schiff's Bach appealingly transparent, though I've not heard him play any live.

Thanks for the report from the hall, Darkbloom, I had hoped to be there, but somebody's idea of 'tea' turned into something rather more extended.

[Richard Tarleton]

Nor mine: I'll buy Schiff's performance and enjoyed every minute of it. And plenty of variety, I felt. From the dancing to the dreamy, and always with delicate precision.

I have his first recording of it - Decca recorded 1982 - with notes by George Malcolm. He's recently had another go. Looking forward to hearing how he goes about it now - will give the old one a spin first, perhaps. He's my sort of musician too. For my regular listening pleasure I turn to Ms Hewitt, whom I've heard play it live and who will be playing it in our neck of the woods in March, I'm delighted to say.

[Tony Halstead]

I have his first recording of it - Decca recorded 1982 - with notes by George Malcolm. He's recently had another go. Looking forward to hearing how he goes about it now - will give the old one a spin first, perhaps. He's my sort of musician too. For my regular listening pleasure I turn to Ms Hewitt, whom I've heard play it live and who will be playing it in our neck of the woods in March, I'm delighted to say.

with notes by George Malcolm

Ah...nostalgia.... I studied with the beatific George in the late 1970s to early 1980s.
His Goldbergs were 'a thing to marvel at' as his harpsichord 'of choice' was a very complicated beast indeed with no less than EIGHT pedals, each one of them in some way changing the 'registration', so that from one second to the next we could be hearing a simple 8' sound followed by an 8' + 4' and then maybe an 8' + 16'...
Those monster Goble harpsichords also had a 'half-hitch' setting for the pedals so that if you 'pressed harder' ( on the pedals) the jacks moved about 0.01 millimeters closer to the strings, giving the illusion of a 'crescendo' which of course is a theoretical impossibility on the harpsichord!

[EdgeleyRob]

Totally compelling performance I thought.
Very precise,all the lines crystal clear.
An online review mentions Schiff's specially conditioned Steinway piano.
What does that mean ?
Sorry if this is a silly question with an obvious answer.

[Bryn]

Totally compelling performance I thought.
Very precise,all the lines crystal clear.
An online review mentions Schiff's specially conditioned Steinway piano.
What does that mean ?
Sorry if this is a silly question with an obvious answer.

The instruments he used for his ECM survey of the Beeethoven Piano Sonatas were, I think, conditioned by Angelo Fabbrini, Pescara.

"Italian piano technician and entrepreneur Angelo Fabbrini, from Pescara, Abruzzo, purchases new Steinways from that firm’s celebrated Hamburg atelier and subjects them to minute technical fine-tuning, replaces or substantially rebuilds numerous crucial action components, and reworks the interaction between strings, bridges, and soundboard. The sound of the rebuilt instruments reminds one of the finest surviving pre-1912 Blüthner concert grands (from Leipzig) and of 19th-century concert instruments by Mason & Hamlin, the 19th-century Boston firm whose pianos were, by a comfortable margin, the highest-priced in this country."

from: http://www.classical-scene.com/2010/...ni-in-concert/

[EdgeleyRob]

The instruments he used for his ECM survey of the Beeethoven Piano Sonatas were, I think, conditioned by Angelo Fabbrini, Pescara.

"Italian piano technician and entrepreneur Angelo Fabbrini, from Pescara, Abruzzo, purchases new Steinways from that firm’s celebrated Hamburg atelier and subjects them to minute technical fine-tuning, replaces or substantially rebuilds numerous crucial action components, and reworks the interaction between strings, bridges, and soundboard. The sound of the rebuilt instruments reminds one of the finest surviving pre-1912 Blüthner concert grands (from Leipzig) and of 19th-century concert instruments by Mason & Hamlin, the 19th-century Boston firm whose pianos were, by a comfortable margin, the highest-priced in this country."

from: http://www.classical-scene.com/2010/...ni-in-concert/

Interesting
Many thanks for this Bryn