A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations (1955 & 1981)

Gould give us what we should call his battlehorse: The Goldberg variations. I have got four versions (the two of this set) one from Canada 1952 and another one from Salzburg 1959.

Each one of them has his own profile, but surely no one of these can be beyond the version of 1981. It sounds wise, cosmical and in a certain way, Gould seems to give us a kind of musical testament.

You can say that Mr. Gould was a singular case in the music but his approach to Bach was unique. Forever and ever Gould will be the foremost pianist born in Canada and a genius of the keyboard.

These Goldberg performance owns wisdom besides musicality. It's obviously an autumn farewell!

It's a matter of preference as to which 20th-century pianist made the most persuasive case for playing Bach on the piano. Rosalyn Tureck comes to mind, as do Murray Perahia and Andras Schiff, and certainly Busoni if you're thinking of transcriptions rather than recordings. But Glenn Gould, with his golden tone and flawless if eccentric technique, is the Bach pianist who remains most prominent in the public mind, even more than 20 years after his death. No Bach work demonstrated Gould's artistry to greater advantage than The Goldberg Variations, and having both his 1955 and 1981 versions in a single package is a delight. The 1955 version, recorded when he was only 23, is a masterpiece of effervescent, fleet-fingered joy in the making of music; the 1981 version, not surprisingly, is more deliberative, more cognizant of the music's inner voices. Personally, I prefer the 1955 version, for the same reasons that I prefer champagne to old-growth cabernet. But both are a must for any serious classical music CD collection.

If the standard of playing Bach is to play like Glenn Gould, then
this is perfect Bach. Personally speaking, I dont know what the hubbub is all about. I find Gould's highly praised rhythms and quirks highly irritating and not at all reflective of genius, but
simply a symptom of originality. For those few who gain nothing emotionally from this performance, I recommend my overwhelming favorite of this work played by Perahia.

The 1955 recoding included here has terrible sound quality, I thought -- but the new ADD 1981 version is superb in all respects (they chose a back-up analog recording over the digital one originally released on vinyl).
There is a disc in this set which includes out-takes from the 1955 session -- fantastic to hear -- indeed, if the entire recording session's out-takes were available I would listen to them for hours!
BTW -- I bought the DVD of this recording session -- get it! Can't say enough about hearing AND seeing the guy make music.

I try to listen to this CD everyday. It carries you away. You listen to it and you feel instantly like you're sipping brandy in a silk robe in a victorian library playing through an old chess game.