Track Listing

1. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Aria
2. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 1 a 1 Clav
3. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 2 a 1 Clav
4. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 3 a 1 Clav. Canone all' Unisuono
5. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 4 a 1 Clav
6. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.
7. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 6 a 1 Clav. Canone all Seconda
8. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. Al tempo di Giga
9. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 8 a 2 Clav.
10. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 9 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Terza
11. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 10 a 1 Clav. Fughetta
12. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 11 a 2 Clav.
13. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 12. Canone alla Quarta
14. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 13 a 2 Clav.
15. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 14 a 2 Clav.
16. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 15 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quinta in moto contrario
17. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 16 Overture a 1 Clav.
18. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 17 a 2 Clav.
19. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 18 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Sesta
20. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 19 a 1 Clav.
21. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 20 a 2 Clav.
22. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 21 Canone alla Settima
23. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 22 Alla breve a 1 Clav.
24. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 23 a 2 Clav.
25. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 24 Canone all' Ottava a 1 Clav.
26. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 25 a 2 Clav.
27. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 26 a 2 Clav.
28. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 27 Canone alla Nona
29. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 28 a 2 Clav.
30. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.
31. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Variatio 30 a 1 Clav. Quodlibet
32. Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9): Aria da capo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6694 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2000-10-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Thanks to the Bach anniversary year, we've enjoyed a bonanza of interpretations of the master. One of the most honestly compelling--Murray Perahia's account of the Goldberg Variations--uniquely underscored the fundamental subtext behind all the celebration: the wondrous inexhaustibility of Bach's creative imagination. Perahia has come to a new understanding of Bach in the full prime of his career, and his first recording of this monument communicates the wealth of his insights with color, depth, and subtly charged poetry. --Thomas May

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

Customer Reviews

A great recording
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.

Subtle and full of life
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.

Correcting some misconceptions.
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.