Bach: Goldberg Variations

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Murray Perahia (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Murray Perahia
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
• Audio CD (October 3, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00004Z3PV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,461 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #7 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Variations

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Listen to the music first! Perahia's booklet essay is a dry musicological treatise concerned with technical aspects of Bach's music. His performance, on the other hand, is filled with life and excitement. The kind of overt virtuosity heard in some of these variations has been a rarity in Perahia's recordings, but it shows how wide a range he intends to cover in his playing of this masterpiece. Unlike Glenn Gould, who is most listeners' touchstone for piano performances of the Goldbergs, Perahia takes Bach's necessary repeats and uses them as occasions for adventure, varying not only the emphases, but also the actual notes. This kind of embellishment in repeats was expected in Bach's time, but it's rare in ours. Also, taking the repeats doubles the length of the piece, making it a larger and more affecting experience--as long as the performer manages to keep those repeats alive, which Perahia certainly does. His playing of the famous 25th variation is deeply affecting without the faintest trace of sentimentality. The way he varies Bach's moods from moment to moment is extremely effective. This is, in short, one of the great recordings of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations. With Vladimir Feltsman's similarly revelatory performance currently out of the catalogs, Perahia's is probably the best piano version available. It's also one of his best recordings. --Leslie Gerber

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

110 of 120 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great recording November 28, 2000

By musicfaninchicago

Format:Audio CD

The Goldberg variations are one of the two or three greatest pieces for the keyboard, encompassing a universe of moods, and susceptible to a variety of satisfying interpretations. They are hypnotic and addictive -- the more you listen to them, the harder it is to move on to another CD! This new recording by Perahia joins the top of the heap of great Goldberg recordings on piano alongside Gould and Tureck and others (I'm also partial to the underrated Tatyana Nikolayeva and the new bargain disk by Zhu Xiao-Mei). Perahia's playing has great elegance and viruosity with a great round sound. Compared with other greats, I find his playing is a little more relaxed than either Gould or Tureck. Gould has a crazed percussive intensity (at least in the earlier recording which I prefer) while Tureck has her own intensity in the heavy mannering of each phrase (in the VAI recording). Perahia has the best of both in my view, intense in some of the faster variations (some of the trills remind me of Kissin's recent work in Chopin) with clarity and nuance in his phrasing, not quite so precious as Tureck. I don't think there can be one "perfect" Goldberg -- just as there is no "perfect" Hammerklavier Sonata. But Perahia's account is distinct, beautiful and eloquent.

99 of 112 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Correcting some misconceptions. December 24, 2000

By Cameron Jackson

Format:Audio CD

A number of customer reviewers have criticised this recording. The bulk of them do so either from a position of prejudice or ignorance, or both.

For instance, Perahia is criticised for using pedal, and rubato. Anyone who has played this work (and other work by Bach) on the piano will know that it is technically not possible to make music out of every voice without judicious use of the pedal.

Besides, notes which linger on in Bach add complexity, and understanding. Often, holding a note a little longer demonstrates a horizontal (melodic) or vertical (harmonic) connection otherwise only hinted at.

Perahia is a model of restraint in his use of pedal, despite the criticism.

As for the criticism of the use of rubato, I suggest that for a start, the reviewer should define what they mean. Are they talking about within the beat, the bar, a phrase?

Whatever they mean, only someone who has not played Bach would imagine that it can be played musically with a slavish adherence to the metronome.

Rubato is only a problem when it obscures the sense of the music. In some epochs, more is permitted. In Horowitz's day, much more freedom was allowed. Horowitz is always convincing. As is Perahia, who is a model of restraint (to adopt the rubato-disapprover's sense of right and wrong) compared to Horowitz.

Perahia's uses phrase-based rubato and he conceives the music in large phrases. His rubato simply emphasises the architecture of the music, as he feels it.

Others call the performance "idiosyncratic". Ironically, some of these people prefer Gould, who is both idiosyncratic, self-indulgent, and sometimes plain idiotic.

Others criticise what they perceive to be his emphasis on the bass-line. Perahia simply gives each voice equal weight, which is exactly what the music calls for. That is the beauty of Bach, every voice is equally important. Other players (such as Schiff, for instance, when he plays Bach fugues) tend to emphasis what they perceive to be the melodic voice.

Yet another customer says that they "prefer Perahia's poetic period", which they imagine was years ago. Have they listened to his recent recording "Songs without Words", in particular, "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland"? There has been no loss of "poetry" in Perahia's playing, though he has never had the weight, depth, and sadness of a player like Nikolaeva, which may come from the sorrow of decades of Russian winters.

Perahia articulates each voice faultlessly. He does not call attention to himself, and he uses a pianist's tools (ie, rubato, pedal, touch) to sculpt his interpretation.

It is a fine performance.

51 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle and full of life November 6, 2000

By J Scott Morrison HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Perahia's explanation of his understanding of the technical aspects of the Goldbergs, in the liner notes, is exemplified amply in his playing. Unlike some commentators, he makes little of the canons occurring at every third variation, and instead emphasizes how the variations mirror the structure of the Aria itself in four groups of eight - groups of eight measures in the Aria, groups of eight variations in the piece as a whole. And he points out how the last few variations express increasing excitement until the last variation, the Quodlibet, then followed by the repose of the repeat of the Aria at the very end.

However, the point is not the technical analysis, but the playing itself. There are many, many felicities in his playing: the fairly rare but generally playful embellishments, the rock-solid fingers, the lightness of the fleet variations, the gravity of the slower variations, including the palpable grief of the last great slow variation, the onward rush at the end.

This is a great recording from a great artist.