Bach Goldberg Variations

Started by Mystery, December 03, 2007, 10:56:08 AM

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Mandryka

Quote from: Que on February 28, 2017, 10:20:23 PM


Any good? :)

[asin]B01NADFYGD[/asin]
Q

Very good harpsichord (Flemish) , and recorded sound.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Parsifal

#241
Quote from: Mandryka on May 30, 2017, 02:55:23 AM


Richard Lester plays the Goldberg Variations, with gentility, sobriety and care. He takes every repeat identically. Long singing phrasing. My feeling is that he is at pains to bring out the large scale structure of the set. And my impression is that what he's doing is extremely beautiful in a galant way. Sweet small (8') German style harpsichord (Colin Booth after Johann Christoph Fleischer in Berlin.) This may well be a recording which will repay repeated listening.

This seems like an absurd thing to do. If the music is repeated, why not take advantage by varying ornaments or other performance details?

Mandryka

#242
Quote from: Scarpia on May 30, 2017, 10:02:57 AM
This seems like an absurd thing to do. If the music is repeated, why not take advantage by varying ornaments or other performance details?

I agree this is a good question, and I bet Richard Lester has thought about it a lot. He must think that you lose something by introducing additional variation, and my guess was that he wanted to highlight structure, the structure of the goldbergs is very very very symmetrical, reflective, both globally and within each variation.

But listen to it, I've only heard it once and he could be introducing nuances which I missed.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Parsifal

Probably a lot of recordings do the same, and may even used tape editing to splice in the repeats, but it seems like a lost opportunity. One of the things I really liked about Andras Schiff's Bach recordings made for Decca is that he would often vary ornamentation in repeats, particularly in the dance movements from the Suite and Partitas, which share the same structure as the variations in the Goldberg's.

Mandryka

In var 25 Lester does something magic. He puts just one of the keyboards on a lute stop, and uses it for one of the voices of most of the music - but at the end he cuts out the lute. Very nice sounding lute stop too. It's astonishing. .

I may well have been wrong to say he introduces no variation in the repeats all of the time, I can notice a little ornament here and there, for example.

I do not think I was wrong to suggest that this is a performance which will repay repeated listening. At least if people are not wedded to the idea that the music should be dazzlingly virtuosic and exciting.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

milk


I think all the praise this is receiving is deserved.

San Antone

A minute ago I began listening to this



The Aria is played very nicely to my ears.

Vinbrulé

It seems that Blandine Verlet registered two times the Goldberg Variations.  I found , and enormously liked , this version on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bpkJd2rNI&list=RDx4RzJpP_1IU&index=2      but I can't understand which is the CD containing this version: both CDs are from Naive/Astree. May you help me to understand ?   Thanks.

Mandryka

Quote from: Vinbrulé on March 02, 2018, 07:47:32 AM
It seems that Blandine Verlet registered two times the Goldberg Variations.  I found , and enormously liked , this version on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bpkJd2rNI&list=RDx4RzJpP_1IU&index=2      but I can't understand which is the CD containing this version: both CDs are from Naive/Astree. May you help me to understand ?   Thanks.

The you tube is her first recording. I wasn't aware that it has been released apart from on vinyl. Her second recording is available on CD and for download.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

André


Vinbrulé

Quote from: Mandryka on March 02, 2018, 08:02:58 AM
The you tube is her first recording. I wasn't aware that it has been released apart from on vinyl. Her second recording is available on CD and for download.
I must correct my previous statement : the Goldberg first recording that Blandine Verlet performed was released by Philips on vinyl .  I don't think they have put this on CD .  The version found on YouTube is probably this one  (about 72' instead of the 79' of the Astree version) 

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Could someone please do a brief compare/contrast of the three (3) versions by Leonhardt? Which one do you favor and why?
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

Mandryka

#252
First recording (Vanguard). Pulse is steady.  Ammer harpsichord.

Second recording (Teldec). Very similar to the first in conception but on an better harpsichord, an authentic one, and a bit more independent and characterful voicing.

Third recording (DHM). Not dissimilar to the second in conception but a bit more independent and expressive voicing and on a more beautiful  harpsichord, better recorded and I think more inspired playing, with more interesting articulation and "textures" This is the best one.

No repeats in any of them.

Control, poise, expression. These are Apollonian performances, not Bach "in flesh and blood" but rather Bach in "mind and spirit" . But the sense of abandon in the third, the sense of Leonhardt abondoning his controlling self in order to let the music take flight to eternity, is present.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Thanks. From what I've read, the Vanguard is more different from the subsequent 2 recordings, than those recordings are from each other.

Some criticisms about the harpsichord sound on that first recording, which is a point for me, as Leonhardt was the guy who convinced me I could love the sound of a harpsichord in the first place.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

Mandryka

Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 10, 2018, 09:35:41 AM
Thanks. From what I've read, the Vanguard is more different from the subsequent 2 recordings, than those recordings are from each other.

I'd quite like to see the argument for that if it's online somewhere you have a link.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Mandryka on March 10, 2018, 10:11:22 AM
I'd quite like to see the argument for that if it's online somewhere you have a link.

No link unfortunately, I've just been reading around here and there. Also, there are some complaints about the instrument he uses (apparently it's not a "proper" harpsichord, as if I could tell the difference).

Basically, I lack a harpsichord recording of this. I tried Scott Ross and didn't like it much. I think Leonhardt might do it for me, based on past performance (Froberger, Byrd).

Bigger question: what is the "harpsichordiest" harpsichord recording? That is, which Goldbergs most completely exploits the resources of the 2-manual harpsichord this piece was written for? 
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

North Star

I'm rather fond of Bonizzoni, and he's quite harpsichordy.
https://www.youtube.com/v/Cddehw_WI8E
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

amw

Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on March 10, 2018, 12:02:06 PMThat is, which Goldbergs most completely exploits the resources of the 2-manual harpsichord this piece was written for? 
Probably Staier, but to the point of sacrificing musicality for special effects, in the opinion of a number of people on this forum....

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: North Star on March 10, 2018, 12:21:11 PM
I'm rather fond of Bonizzoni, and he's quite harpsichordy.
https://www.youtube.com/v/Cddehw_WI8E
Sorry, I am not crazy about it. Reminds me of declined, old jazz singers.

Que

Quote from: North Star on March 10, 2018, 12:21:11 PM
I'm rather fond of Bonizzoni, and he's quite harpsichordy.


Same here.  :)

Q