This is a truly inspired work, and yet it's not greatly represented in my Blog, this is its fourth appearance, and Schiff on Decca was a version i grew up with, i really love the way Schiff interprets this work, he has a newer Goldberg Variation that he recorded for ECM, and i bought this disc also, and not wanting to have two separate discs kicking around, i amalgamated them into one case here, and it's this newer ECM recording that i listened to and i'm reporting here, i find it very much the same, very slight differences in fact, they are about 20 years apart, Schiff was 30 and 50 respectively.
Andras Schiff is Hungarian, he's now 58, he recorded this disc [ECM] in 2003, it's a live recording, the Decca front cover [by Peter Schaaf] shows Schiff leaning on the side of his piano, hands clasped, white bow tie, half of the photo covered by the piano lid, which conveniently makes a place for the lettering, i like the shadows of dark and light on Schiff, one other thing, the Decca recording has only six tracks, of roughly five variations each, so i rubbed some transfers on the back inlay so that i know where i am, the ECM recording has separate tracks for each variation.
I must admit i enjoyed this interpretation very much, but i also admit that it's not as great as his Decca recording, the variations i enjoyed the most were 5, 8, 19-20 & 29, and here's a short synopsis of these variations,
Variation 5 [7:13] - A nice rolling yet chugging Variation, it has a lovely flow to it, the hands must be going mad, fast passagework in sixteenths.
Variation 8 [0:00] - A nice loud variation, not unlike the Fifth, yes it is in fact the twin of the Fifth, fast passagework again, with hand crossings and large octave leaps, Schiff plays it fast, and it's really thrilling.
Variation 19 [0:00] - A nice Morse code Variation, fairly muted, nice and lyrical, Schiff uses some clever little touches which brightens things up on the piano that wouldn't work on the Harpsichord.
Variation 20 [1:02] - This is where Schiff gets quite individual, and quite different in some ways to his Decca recording, but i like it, he is more staccato, especially in the repeat of the opening [0:26-0:39], a sort of staccato boogie of the original!, further on in the Variation there's some tremendous virtuoso runs up and down the keyboard.
Variation 29 [0:00] - Almost to the end, and there's a sort of finality about the last couple of Variations, and here the virtuosity is absolutely brilliant, Schiff really gives it a send off, fast arpeggios and runs, all those notes on the page must be very daunting for lesser Pianists, and the longer the Variation goes on the more and more notes that come screaming at you, now that's very satisfying musically, probably the best Variation of all on this listen.
The links are to YouTube with Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations, the timings after each Variation is where in the YouTube video the Variation starts.
Variation 5 [7:13] - A nice rolling yet chugging Variation, it has a lovely flow to it, the hands must be going mad, fast passagework in sixteenths.
Variation 8 [0:00] - A nice loud variation, not unlike the Fifth, yes it is in fact the twin of the Fifth, fast passagework again, with hand crossings and large octave leaps, Schiff plays it fast, and it's really thrilling.
Variation 19 [0:00] - A nice Morse code Variation, fairly muted, nice and lyrical, Schiff uses some clever little touches which brightens things up on the piano that wouldn't work on the Harpsichord.
Variation 20 [1:02] - This is where Schiff gets quite individual, and quite different in some ways to his Decca recording, but i like it, he is more staccato, especially in the repeat of the opening [0:26-0:39], a sort of staccato boogie of the original!, further on in the Variation there's some tremendous virtuoso runs up and down the keyboard.
Variation 29 [0:00] - Almost to the end, and there's a sort of finality about the last couple of Variations, and here the virtuosity is absolutely brilliant, Schiff really gives it a send off, fast arpeggios and runs, all those notes on the page must be very daunting for lesser Pianists, and the longer the Variation goes on the more and more notes that come screaming at you, now that's very satisfying musically, probably the best Variation of all on this listen.
The links are to YouTube with Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations, the timings after each Variation is where in the YouTube video the Variation starts.
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