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Five Piano Goldberg Variations Recordings on DG · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  A couple of years ago, I reviewed a new recording of the Franz Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor,
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  played by the pianist Sung Jin Cho, and it was brought out by the Deutsche Grammophon
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  label.
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  My first paragraph of the review read like this, Deutsche Grammophon must love Liszt's
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  B minor sonata, having released recordings of the work by, in alphabetical order, Pierre
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  Laurent-Emerard, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Ander Foldes, Elaine Grimaud, Diana Cosco,
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  Yundi Li, Ivo Pogorelich, Maurizio Polini, Mikhail Pletneff, Daniel Trifonov, Thomas
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  Vasri, Yuja Wang, and Christian Zimmerman.
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  My goodness, what a great group of pianists that is.
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  So when you consider just how many pianists have been lining up to record JS Bach's
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  Goldberg Variations, it got me thinking about Deutsche Grammophon, and I wonder just how
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  many piano versions the so-called yellow label has issued of the Goldbergs, at least here
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  in the West.
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  There may be some versions that were exclusively issued on the Asian market, but in so far
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  as the West, it appears that there have just been five piano recordings of the Goldbergs
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  on DG to date.
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  The first one was with Wilhelm Kempf in the late 1960s, and then nothing until the 1990s
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  when Andrei Govrilov recorded the Goldbergs for DG.
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  And that one was followed closely by Rosalind Turek in 1998.
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  Then another two decades went by until Lang Lang recorded the Goldbergs in 2019.
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  And most recently, we've had Wienke Ger Olafsson and his Goldberg Variations recording on DG.
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  Since these five interpretations are so utterly different from one another, I thought that
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  it might be interesting to talk about all five of them.
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  Now, they are not necessarily in my tip-top list of piano versions of the Goldbergs, but
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  I do enjoy what I get out of them, and I'm very happy to have all five in my collection
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  at my beck and call.
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  So let's begin with Wilhelm Kempf.
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  He plays only the repeats for the A sections of the aria and the variations.
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  And the variations and the aria are composed in a binary form, which means that one section
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  of 16 bars is followed by another section containing 16 bars.
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  That's two parts.
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  So Kempf repeats the first group of 16 bars for each variation.
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  And in this recording, if you've heard it, you will notice that he plays the theme without
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  any embellishments at first.
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  It sounds kind of naked.
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  But then he adds embellishments on the repeat.
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  Kempf is a very straight-laced and intimate kind of player, and he makes his points not
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  from virtuoso effects, but from subtle nuances, changes of color, dynamic gradations, and
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  accents.
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  His contrapuntal lines converse with each other, it seems, with a real naturalness and
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  fluidity as if the music is somewhat being improvised on the spot.
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  Kempf generally chooses moderate tempos, but every once in a while he shows that he can
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  really deliver fast détaché articulation, almost as well as Glenn Gould.
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  In fact, I'd say equal to Glenn Gould, such as the variation 27, the Canon at the Ninth.
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  But what I really like about Kempf's Goldberg variations is the lack of artifice, and it
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  has a real sense of authenticity in the approach.
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  He's not out to dazzle you, but he's out to share the music.
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  And I come back to this recording quite often with great pleasure.
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  However, Andrei Gavrilov is all about razzle-dazzle and showing off.
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  I once knew a pianist who described Andrei Gavrilov as a BMW without the driver.
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  And indeed, Gavrilov's fingers often do outrun his brains.
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  But it's so much fun to hear the speedy audacity of Gavrilov's fingerwork in the cross-handed
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  variations.
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  I even like it when he's totally glib and insensitive, as in that normally lyrical and
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  introspective variation 13.
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  But in other variations that are normally introspective and reserved, like the three
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  minor key variations and the aria, of course, Gavrilov just kind of shuts down and becomes
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  boring.
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  And incidentally, he takes all of the repeats, including the rarely heard repeats and the
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  aria da capo.
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  Actually, they're being played more and more these days.
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  I actually discovered that the aria and the aria da capo are identical takes.
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  Apparently, the aria da capo was regenerated from the aria.
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  Gavrilov simply couldn't bother to re-record the aria.
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  Bad boy.
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  But overall, I get a real kick out of Andrei Gavrilov, simply as a guilty pleasure.
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  I mean, he's not the subtlest tool in the shed.
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  He never has been.
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  But it's a really fun Goldberg variations, as I said before.
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  Now, if Gavrilov was a fast Goldberg variations pianist, Rosalind Turek took her sweet time.
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  In fact, she always did, at least on records.
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  In March 1998, at the age of 84, Turek made a studio recording of the Goldbergs for a
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  Deutsche Grammophon.
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  And she whimsically referred to it as my mature interpretation.
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  Her tempos were never fast to begin with, but here they are quite broad.
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  And the interpretation remains as austere and reverential as it always had been with
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  Turek.
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  Rosalind Turek was often referred to as the high priestess of Bach.
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  And my reaction to that line was always, well, I think the high priestess ought to get out
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  of the temple more often.
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  But her readings of the nine canonic variations, the canons, have remarkable finger independence.
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  And the minor key variations are much more flexible and even a little more spontaneous
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  than they had been in past Turek recordings.
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  And all of her ornaments are very meticulously calibrated, as one would expect from a high
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  priestess.
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  If I had to choose one Rosalind Turek Goldberg Variations recording, however, I would still
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  opt for that live version of hers from the early 1980s.
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  It came out on both the Albany and the VAI labels.
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  And it was recorded at a private concert at the home of William F. Buckley, of all people.
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  So in a nutshell, I respect Rosalind Turek's Goldberg Variations on DG more than I love
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  it or even like it, to be honest.
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  But I am sure that Rosalind Turek would have totally cringed had she lived to hear Long,
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  Long play the Goldbergs.
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  Now I have to admit that I was one of the few CD reviewers in English who actually gave
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  an unambiguously positive review for Long, Long's Goldberg Variations recording.
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  Yes, he is the pianist whom all serious music critics love to hate.
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  And yes, he often can be vulgar and musically narcissistic.
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  And he knows how to bait audiences with musical gestures and tempos and whipping up phrasing
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  and dynamics just to get a rise out of the public.
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  You know, it's probably no coincidence that Long, Long shares a birthday with a certain
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  former United States president whose name I will not mention.
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  But I do have to say that Long, Long realizes his conception of the Goldbergs with total
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  success and absolutely no barrier between ideation and execution.
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  When I reviewed his Goldbergs for Gramophone Magazine, I sensed something to the effect
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  that if hearing Murray Pariah, Andras Schiff, or Angela Hewitt is like diving into a substantial
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  literary work like Remembrance of Things Past or maybe War and Peace or Gravity's Rainbow
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  or Ulysses or something like that, Long, Long's Goldbergs are like the musical equivalent
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  of a Steven Spielberg blockbuster, meaning it's big on attention getting effects, there's
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  a lot of sentimentality and kind of a populist bent, yet it's technically impeccable from
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  soup to nuts.
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  And you know, frankly, what's wrong with that?
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  Long, Long conjures up a wide range of moods and expressive angles and his virtuosity is
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  brilliant but it's not brainless in the way that Goverlof can sometimes be.
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  There's gorgeous legato phrasing that just oozes like melted cheese and there are lavish
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  ornaments on all of the repeats and the canons feature very impressive linear separation
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  which is similar to Rosalind Turek in that sense, almost as if each line had been assigned
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  to a different pianist playing on a different instrument.
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  And there is a real sense of unity in how Long, Long gauges his tempos and his transitions.
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  Again, I think the cinematic analogy comes to mind.
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  Now, is this how I would play the Goldberg variations or is this my preferred kind of
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  Bach pianism in terms of style?
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  No, it's not, hardly at all.
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  But again, Long, Long totally realizes his conception and he does so with complete conviction
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  and I think sincerity.
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  I don't get any sense of cynicism the way that I often do from, let's say, the pianist
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  Simone Bartow's similarly effetuoso interpretations.
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  I mean, you should hear his Goldberg variations.
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  That's something not to be believed.
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  He plays the Busoni edition and it's really tawdry.
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  But what's interesting about the Long, Long studio recording is that Deutsche Grammophon
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  also included another performance from a concert.
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  So you get two Long, Long Goldbergs for the price of one.
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  And the interpretations are pretty similar, although I think the live version is a little
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  more playful and spontaneous in the faster variations.
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  But in any event, I really enjoy the Long, Long Goldbergs for what they are and they
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  don't pretend to be Murray Pariah or Glenn Gould.
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  They are their own world and I think that's totally good and valid.
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  So now we come to V. Kinger Olafsson whose releases on Deutsche Grammophon are heavily,
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  heavily promoted by that label.
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  So many of my pianist friends and colleagues heard him play the Goldbergs in concert this
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  past season and just about all of them went crazy saying that this is the best Goldberg
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  variations in the history of the universe.
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  I wouldn't go that far, but I do enjoy a lot about his recording.
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  You can hear the influence of Glenn Gould sometimes and Olafsson's perky accents and
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  his really incisive articulation.
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  He likes to toy with the dynamics in kind of an attention-getting manner.
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  And there are some quirky moments.
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  For example, he drastically underplays that French Overture variation number 16's opening
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  chord and then on the repeat he renders it as a downward arpeggio.
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  That's kind of strange and I don't really know if it's in the style of a French Overture.
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  And in the Taccata variation, the variation number 29, he sometimes telegraphs what's
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  going to come up to the point of short-changing a beat here and there.
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  And that's something Glenn Gould would never have done.
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  Also, that difficult cross-handed variation number five.
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  This is one that many pianists often start at a super-fast tempo and invariably they
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  get thicker and slower as the music progresses.
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  And that also happens to Vikinger Olafsson.
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  That also happens to Lang Lang, by the way, but not Glenn Gould nor Murray Pariah for
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  that matter.
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  I generally enjoy Olafsson's impressive command of the piano in this music.
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  And he's got charisma up the wazoo.
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  But I still think he comes off sometimes being glib and I don't really hear a consistency
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  of vision or the kind of cumulative design that Lang Lang presents, even though Lang
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  Lang's conception is less stylistically to my taste than Olafsson's.
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  So for consistency of conception and overall unity, I go to Glenn Gould, especially his
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  1981 digital remake, or Murray Pariah as well, who plays all of the repeats and has marvelous
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  ornaments.
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  Either of Angela Hewitt's two recorded versions for Hyperion, I think, follow this idea.
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  Also the first Andras Schiff recording of the Goldbergs, the one for Deka.
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  That is very, very special.
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  So there we have it, five Goldberg Variations recordings on the piano and five utterly different
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  piano personalities in the form of Wilhelm Kempf, Andrei Goverloff, Rosalind Turek, Lang
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  Lang, and Vikingr Olafsson.
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  I hope you found this talk useful or hopefully entertaining or interesting.
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  And do check out the links that I've provided to where you can purchase and download or
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  stream these releases.
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  This is Jed Dissler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven Podcast.
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  I look forward to being with you next time.
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  Take good care.