The Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould 1981

[Ki Choi]

It would be to die for on R2R...

Ki

[Ben]

I wonder if Doc can mail a TP tape to a coffin in Transylvania.
That is the only only you can die and still be around to hear it. :)
PS.
Runs and ducks the tossed 45 of "  The monster mash " thrown this way.

[classicrecordings]

My pressing is dated 1982, but this is a digital recording anyway, and would not qualify because of that. 

[astrotoy]

I like the earlier mid '50's recording by Gould better. IIRC, this was the first recording on Columbia done by Gould. Zenph has done a phenomenal job in recreating the performance by creating a digital file of the actual keystrokes from the recording and then recording the playback done by a Bosendorfer reproducing piano. The SACD is very special. Unfortunately it also is not analogue. One thing missing from the original is Gould's incessant humming which is very distracting on many of his recordings. I guess if you wanted to capture the original sound, then the humming would be part of that. There is a richness of tone that the Bosendorfer has - mellower than a Steinway, that works very well for Bach on the piano.

Larry

[ironbut]

Thanks Larry! I was trying to remember Zenph and I thought I'd bookmarked it somewhere but I couldn't find it when this thread started. I've been meaning to get that SACD. I'm a big Gould fan and I used to listen to his entire WTC whenever I felt like I needed to get in touch with my Bach roots.
I also prefer the first recording and as far as I can tell, the votes are generally 50/50.
I'm not so sure if the sound that Columbia got on their piano releases would be so great as a TP release. But of course, I've never heard the masters either.

[Ki Choi]

It was amazing to see the actual DVD video of Gould stitting down at the piano (with no music of course) and start playing the entire piece by memory - and never stopping till the end...  I am no Bach expert to tell if he had missed any notes but I never realized the gravity of his performance until I saw it beginning to end with my own eyes...

There was a brief shot of a Mitsubishi digital recroder in the studio, but I read somewhere an analog recorder was also used to capture the performance as a back up of the digital recording.

Again, let's hope that the analog master exists and it could be considered for TP candidate.

[TomR]

A few years ago I purchased the CD set called, I think, "A State of Wonder", which had both the 55 and the 81 recordings, and also an interesting interview with Gould.  If you were to categorize the interpretations, and they are quite different, the 55 would be romantic and the 81 would be classic - I tended to prefer the 81, possibly being influenced by Gould's comments (he trashes his own performance in the 55), but it does seem to me to have a greater sense of internal logic, and includes more of the repeats.

Having said all of that, if we are going to have a Goldberg Variations I would plump for a harpsichord rendition - Ralph Kirkpatrick, anyone?

[TomR]

I listened to Kirkpatrick tonight (LP) - one of the reasons I prefer harpsichord is that it has a warmer sound is this music - the piano seems more recessed, even detached in Bach. While I am no longer a card carrying purist - I think Bach would have been happy to hear the Goldberg Variations on piano (yeah, we'll never know) but the music sounds, for me anyway,  right on a harpsichord. Kirkpatrick is perhaps a little old fashioned but he draws great coloristic variety from his instrument, something not possible as on a piano. (Listen and hear for yourself.)

Bach was really a passionate man - he did have 20 children (!) and the music sounds passionate on a harpsichord, not so much on piano.

Gould was a great artist, even though a little crazy.....