Bach: Goldberg Variations

Customer Rating:
Summary: Strong in architecture but missed some of the substance
Comment: I heard Murray Perahia performed this monumental work live in an October 2000 recital. Even though I am a big fan of his and this work, I found myself wanting more that was not in that performance. I have his recording of the work and have listened to it many times over the years and still found myself a bit under-whelmed. I have always admired Perahia's unerring sense of poetry, whether performing Chopin or Scarlatti. In fact, it was his recording of the Handel suites and Scarlatti sonatas that made me think that he can do wonders with the Goldberg Variations.

As always, his technical commands are as impressive as you can find in any of his recordings. He played the Variations with strong sense of rhythmic drive that one expects from Gould (1981 and 1955), the emphasis on architecture that one finds in Tureck (VAI and EMI), and some of the colorings that are plentiful in Hewitt's interpretation. The strong sense of forward momentum of Perahia's interpretation robs some of the beauty and character of the individual variations and the work as a whole. In almost every variation, I yearn for the colors and dynamic gradations as well as the sense of joy, pathos, reflection and even mania that are evident in Hewitt's recording.

Undoubtedly, this is a good recording of the Goldberg Variations but it is flawed by not having enough humanity in it. Angela Hewitt's interpretation surpasses Perahia's or any piano recording of this work I have heard so far.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Perahia at his best
Comment: This is one of the most beautiful performances of the Goldberg Variations ever. Perahia allows the listener to hear the music anew, offers a definitive interpretation, but always gives prominence to Bach. For me this is a much more satisfying performance than Gould's, which amazingly still has its cult devotees. Gould's Goldberg is about Gould, not about Bach. Perahia's Goldberg is about Music.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Comment: This CD captures the soul of Bach's Goldberg Variations like nothing else I have heard. If you are searching for music that will make your heart, soul and mind evolve to a new level of music appreciation, you simply must purchase this CD. After listening to Murray Perahia play the Bach's Goldberg Variations I will purchase anything he has recorded.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Perahia's Goldberg Variations
Comment: I know it isn't a very solid objection to harpsichord versions of the Goldberg Variations to say that the tinkle-jangle of that instrument, after a bit, gets on one's nerves. But so it is with me, so I turned to some of the best-known piano performances to see which suited me best. I compared Rosalyn Tureck's, both of Glenn Gould's and Murray Perahia's, and was somewhat surprised to find myself come down so decidedly in favor of this last. Perahia's, I think, is the most human Bach.

Tureck has been called the "high-priestess" of Bach--and I don't think that is entirely a compliment. Her 'Goldberg' seems indeed that of a priestess or prophetess searching for something divinely revelatory in the work; she approaches it in a state of awed reverence, and lingers over each note until she feels it has fully ripened in sacred significance. Needless to say, all repeats, representing the functional equivalent of Divine Will (that is to say, Bach's instructions), are faithfully, piously, observed. So this is a very slow, and, I felt, after awhile, somewhat monotonous 'Goldberg.' I can appreciate that reverence often enlarges the soul, and I genuinely miss the note of awe in everyday American life--so it's not as though there is nothing at all to recommend Tureck's interpretation. But in reaching so desperately for the spiritual, she necessarily sacrifices something human.

Gould, too, isn't really interested in a purely human Bach. He sees in him rather a manifestation of cool geometrical or gemlike purity. Even when he slows down in the 1981 version, he keeps the slightly mechanical touch--this is what the "Glossy misreading" review above so loudly endorses. This, too, is a plausible interpretation: I think every listener recognizes and responds to this otherworldly purity of Bach, and in Gould's case it combines neatly with virtuosic showmanship. And, after all, the variations were intended originally for the dynamically-challenged harpsichord.

But the Perahia 'Goldberg' makes clear what Gould ignores--once again, the Bach acquainted with and interested in conveying human dispositions and emotions. He interprets, for example, variation 25 as evoking the kind of suffering belonging to the Crucifixion, 26 as a response to the Resurrection, 27 as bitter mockery. Given Bach's profession and predilection it hardly seems unlikely that he would wish to be understood as capturing not just mathematical ideas but genuinely human responses. So many of the variations, too, are in dance forms, and Perahia is the only one of the three to allow anything plausibly dancelike to appear in them.

In short, Perahia's Variations contain the greatest variety, the most humane elegance; he lets them breathe, makes them live.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Perahia - Goldberg Var.
Comment: For those who find the Glenn Gould version a bit dry, (recording and/or performance), the Perahia version is excellent, precise, but with heart. Also the Gould version is recorded all on one track, making a problem with those of us who like our MP3's and volume levelers.

The Goldberg Variations have been a favorite of mine for many years. I was introduced to them with a Wilhelm Kemph (sp?) record which was perhaps a bit romantic. I think Perahia's version strikes the right balance between precision, clairity of interweaving line and melodic experience.

I understand they are enormusly difficult, originally written for a harpsichord with two keyboards so that hands could cross without running in to each other. Perahia is flawless. A great buy!