Octo_Russ

Bach - Goldberg Variations [Uys] 

This is another disc i enjoyed so much, this is this discs first outing, and there's good and bad, but the good wins the day, i'm so thankful that i have several Pianists to enlighten me on these phenomenal variations, and Tessa Uys adds to that, i saw this disc on Ebay, going fairly cheap, so why not?, the dedication in gold pen on the front would be a bonus if it was only a generic message and signature, but it doesn't really bother me, i guess Ian and Pat just didn't feel the way i do about these discs!.

Tessa Uys [not sure how to pronounce it, maybe 'oo-ees'], was born in South Africa, and this disc was recorded in 2000, the front booklet cover is very nice, Tessa wearing a long flowing ballgown, the lettering is sparse.

So onto the bad points, first of all it's issued on two discs instead of one, roughly 84 minutes of music, so she's fairly slow, my two benchmark recordings are Schiff [72 minutes] and Perahia [74 minutes], but she doesn't sound real slow, just quite thoughtful here and there, usually two discs mean more expense, but i got this for a bargain on Ebay, so it wasn't an issue for me, the recording is not that great considering it's made in 2000, on a South African label, there's a degree of 'analogue' hiss on the recording, and even though this wouldn't be a problem usually, it's the way that the recording has been spliced together, there can be gaps created between some of the variations, and they use 'silence' to fill some of those gaps, rather than 'analogue' hiss, so the end of one variation and the beginning of the next can go, hiss-silence-hiss!, it's so blatantly obvious at points that it's recorded in takes, and all glued together in the studio, it can be a little offputting, and it just shows unprofessionalism by the record company.

So i guess on to the good points, and they're in the interpretation of the music itself, my favourite variations on this listen were 1, 5, 14, 20 & 29, and i'd like to give a little synopsis of each,

Variation 1 - after the slow and quiet Aria theme, the first variation can shock you with surprise, with its invention and rhythm, Uys plays this with excitement.
Variation 5 - this is quite a virtuoso study, full of jagged rhythms, trills all over the keyboard, Uys really does hit her virtuoso stride with this one.
Variation 14 - bass trills, and staggered slashing figures down the keyboard, and lots of treble trills too, a real powerhouse of invention and interest.
Variation 20 - played with understatement at first, with staccato trills, and runs up and down the keyboard.
Variation 29 - very grandiose chords at first, played stiffly, but then there's these runs that sound like a harpsichordist, this is the one variation that Uys sounds as if it's not played on a piano anymore, not my favourite variation, and yet considering how Uys plays it, it's certainly the most individual she plays, plus it's opened up to me the things you can do with this variation, she takes her time over it, but it doesn't sound slow or dragging, just 'stammering' really, so very thrilling.

Here's Glenn Gould playing variation 29 on YouTube.