Customer Reviews

Partitas 4 5 & 6 - 70th Anniversary Edition

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The apogee of this recording is the toccata in e--the first movement of the e minor Partita, S. 830.

This is one of the first recordings GG made for Columbia--immediately after the Goldberg Variations in 1955, and made the same year.

Bach's "toccatas" contained three to five episodes generally following this formula: i) the toccata, proper; ii) an adagio or arietta section; iii) a fugue.

Bach's toccata in e consists of i) toccata, introduction; ii) fugue/aria; iii) toccata, conclusion.

GG was an odd bird: at heart, an ardent Romanticist; on the surface, a sleek Modernist. He does something remarkable with this piece: he infuses an ardently subjective Romanticism with an hard-edged Modernism, turning this antiquated Baroque piece inside out: he makes the upward rushing thrust of the toccata into a pain-filled cry, and the fugue into a studied glacier. With his uncanny timing, GG stretches the piece out to nearly 10 mins: the ending, when the aria theme returns to conjoin the toccata recapitulation--with Gould's exquisite timing and incredible manual dexterity--is absolutely breathtaking. This is incredible art.

A compelling, even thrilling, performance. Satisfying in technical execution and sound engineering.Worthy of listening to over and over again.

In this album, I like Partita No.6. Especially among them, "Sarabande" is extremely attractive one.

Sarabande, performed by Gould, it occurs to me that Bach appeared in this 21st century in disguise himself as a ghost, and he is playing sadly his own music which is tenderly modern but deeply mournful.
From other view: Bringing the Sarabande, Bach took a time travel in the future temporarily when he had composed it.

Indeed, what a delicate, beautiful, and so sorrowful sound there is !

Sound of Sorrow (it takes 3'40'', no repeat by Gould) gives us ultimately, "Time - Space and --Eternity--".

We can also listen to this premonitory sound of Sarabande in the last part of Toccata and through Allemande.
The last music of Partita, in Gigue, Bach awaked and convinced himself that he has returned to his real stage again.

Gould has drawn all of these feeling situations perfectly. (No concern for his voice-humming).

This e-minor Sarabande overwhelms obviously the same e-minor of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto mvt.1st; or Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 mvt.1st; also Chopin Waltz No.14.

I've cherished Glenn Gould's Bach Partitas since I first found it from my father's old LP collection many years ago. I've listened to it ridiculosly many times in all formats--cassettes, CDs, and MP3s. (I now always carry it in my iPhone.) Gould's fiendishly exuberant playing is of course classic. He is most successful in Partitas 1 and 4. But his overall playing is uneven, and the recording sound itself is uneven, too. His Sinfonia in Partia 2 is ugly. His Praeambulum in Partita 5 is too fast; Toccata in Partita 6 is too slow and ponderous. For modern interpretations of Bach Partitas on piano, those by Craig Sheppard and Sharon Mann are good. (Sharon Mann's playing sounds somehwat Gouldish, even though she was once a student of Rosalyn Tureck.) For partial Partitas, Arrau(1,2,3,5), Argerich(2), Tomsic(1) are very good. For a slow interpretation, there always is Tureck (Philips and VAI).

The most extraordinary Bach interpreter ever, not equalled until Russian pianist Ekaterina Derzhavina. Worth ten times the price.

Well, where do I start?

First thing I noticed about some of these recordings is a few arrangements sound a bit shallow and thin. Upon reading the liner notes, my observations were confirmed when I read that Glenn modifies his piano to play more responsively. He does this by "fixing the action - so that it is a shallower and more responsive action than the standard".

For the faster ones, this lends itself in some cases, and in others, you would expect more feeling in the music. "Partita IV - Gigue" is one of my favorite Bach arrangements...but it sounds almost like a completely different song to me when Gould plays it....so fast and mechanical, void of human emotion or feeling. I was a little let down by that aspect. Respectively though, he does play them flawlessly...and amazingly fast!

Something else that I've noticed, is that in many, if not all, of the recordings, you can hear someone humming along with the music. Sometimes it's faint, sometimes it's obvious. I don't know if it's Glenn, or a conductor, or the producer, or what...but it can be distracting. But ala 1950's recording I suppose.

Regarding the recording, most songs have a nice stereo spread...but some are monophonic, so when listening in headphones, you notice the inconsistency.

Sorry if I'm offending any Gould fans out there, but this review would have been helpful for me, if such a review existed and I do hope this review will be helpful to someone out there looking for recordings of their favorite Partitas.