2006-01-31-05:58:16 Robin Bowes: > Pat Farrell said the following on 01/31/2006 06:01 AM: > > In the classical world, a great set is > > Goldberg Variations - Glenn Gould - 1981 CBS Masterworks by Glenn Gould > > Bleurch! His '81 interpretation is awful compared to his earlier 1955 > recording. Fairly well recorded though.
Okay, I'm late stumbling back to this thread, but I certainly can't let that stand -- such judgements are of course pure matters of taste, so let me express an entirely different taste. The question is mostly moot, because both performances are in their way revolutionary illuminations of what Bach wrote down, and I'd contend that both are absolutely essential parts of one's collection. Gould was... well, Gould. I'm sure some continue to resent the thoroughness with which he made the music he played his own, becoming almost a co-author, and indeed if I want to hear a more "straight" (if still brilliant) rendition of a Bach or Beethoven keyboard piece I might go to, say, Brendel... But back to the Gould Goldbergs. The 1955 recording has a compelling youthful energy, a propulsive flow as he rips through the pieces at what seems a breakneck pace (especially once one's developed a taste for the 1981 rendition). The 1981 version, though... he's had another quarter-century to think about the music, and it shows. This performance is akin to travelling along the musical staff with a magnifying glass, as Gould shows you exactly what's living in the spaces between each set of notes. Amazing. And, yes, not to everybody's taste. But you owe it to yourself to listen, really listen, to both recordings. And this is without going into the kind-of-spooky way these recordings bookended both Gould's performing life, and the use of the Columbia 30th Street Studios... -Jeff Moore _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
