The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, was known a musical composition for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach which based on a wonderful aria in an A/B structure. It is an aria of the set of 30 variations which based on the base line (and not mainly on the melody, which correlates with a common baroque ‘chaconne’ practice). There is something of a dividing line after variation 15, and the piece ends as it begins, with the return of the aria. Every third variation is a canon — the melody of each is laid over itself, as in 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat', — with the additional complication that the pitch difference between the melodies rises from a canon in unison up to the canon in ninths. The music was constructed symmetrically, beginning with a beautifully gentle and highly ornamented aria which was published in 1741 and named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (a German virtuoso harpsichordist, organist, and composer), the first performer of this work. There were few of performers used this composition rehearse for the concert or the competitions. Without tiring from this absorbing piece, I have spent some wonderful time exploring many recordings of this variations on both harpsichord and piano.
I was surprised with the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska was the first to record the Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord in the early 1930s. She was recorded on a beast of an instrument by Playel (French composer and piano builder of the classical period), who built for her to have a mechanics of a harpsichord. She was a pioneer of the harpsichord revival who went on to instruct in Berlin, Paris and the U.S. In 1945, she was re-recorded again and these recordings are interesting more as the previous one, namely, she doubles the base, do some additions to repeats and sometimes sounds just plain bombastic and lovely, such as the flowing tempo and style in variation No.25, which she herself named ‘The Black Pearl’.
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Moreover, I also exciting from Igor Kipnis, the first harpsichordist who emphasized the playfulness of the Goldberg Variations, and his performance (1976) is still a joy to listen to. His ornaments can be a bit too much at times, but they sure keep you on the edge of your sit, wondering what he is going to do when the repeat comes around. The recording is a little close and harsh, but like many good performances, you quickly forget about it and concentrate on this fine achievement.
Getting into the 1990’s, Maggie Cole provides a very confident, rhythmically interesting version, and her phrasing of long and short musical sentences is very expertly. However, she is let down by a recording which is too close, with what sounds like an artificially added bass to the recording balance. For this reason, when the two keyboards are used for doubling, they sound stressed and tense that opposite to what her interpretation tries to convey.
Another strong Goldberg version on the harpsichord belongs to Pierre Hantai, with a fresh, charming, emotionally charged and technically superb recording (1993). One only has to listen to Hantai’s performance of the Aria to be drawn into Bach’s world. The instrument, made by Bruce Kennedy in 1985 after a copy of an older Harpsichord from the beginning of the 18th century, is recorded just right, naturally caught in wonderful acoustic. Each and every variation is thought out through and through but executed without ever sounding mechanical of planned. Hantai revisited the Goldberg Variations in a newer recording for the Mirare label (2003), where the extremely high level of execution remains.
Playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the piano shows gigantic challenges. It appears that the extra conceivable outcomes this instrument has over the harpsichord can indeed be considered a deterrent, instead of an advantage. On the harpsichord in a few variations the performers have to utilize two manuals (i.e., two keyboards) of the instrument, or double the notes by enacting this mechanism on a reasonable instrument, playing on one keyboard but operating both keyboards on the same time. An obvious solution is to play some elements on the piano as forte, and others - pianissimo, but that still doesn’t completely do equity to the intention of the composer. In addition, Baroque ornaments which sound suitable or even ‘natural’ on the harpsichord, can be either less effective on the piano, or troublesome to the musical phrases. A few piano players have dealt with these difficulties masterfully, whereas others were less successful. The primary genuine, full piano form of the Goldberg Variations was likely made by the incredible Chilean piano player, Claudio Arrau in 1942. On first listening, it’s rather shocking how ‘modern’ this performance sounds. There are a few clues of 19th-century romanticism that can be heard in other early Bach’s studio recordings, and consistent tempo choices that make the performance flow from begin to the end. All of the Arrau hallmarks are omnipresent, including his sometimes rigid handling of fast-paced elements, or his tendency to induce moderate and heavy as a device to emphasize ‘depth of feeling’.
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