Glenn Gould plays Bach!
- Goldberg Variations, BWV988
Recorded 25th August 1952 - Italian Concerto, BWV971
Recorded 21st October 1952 - Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV1052
Recorded 10th August 1959
Concertgebouw, Dmitri Mitropoulos - Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV1052
Recorded 29th March 1955
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Ernest Macmillan - Partita No. 5 in G major, BWV829
Recorded 4th October 1954
This CD includes two versions of the D minor Piano Concerto, one with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, recorded in Salzburg in 1958, and one with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra recorded in Toronto in 1955. The Goldberg Variations were recorded in Salzburg in 1959.
No one before or since Glenn Gould has had the capability to produce such amazing results with Bach’s most difficult contrapuntal music. That Gould played these pieces at such blinding speeds was not necessarily because the composer required it; I think Gould just wanted us to know that he could do it. To his great credit, Gould’s playing never complicated the simple sounds of Bach’s masterpieces. It is easy to decorate pure melody, yet it is extraordinarily difficult to keep its simplicity intact.
For me, Glenn Gould is the most interesting Bach player ever; however, if I think about how Bach may have expected his music to sound, Gould might have been a disappointment for the composer. We’ll never know for sure…
Here is a video of Glenn Gould performing the Bach Goldberg Variations 1-7
Tags: Glenn Gould, Bach