Two-manual piano Goldbergs

I have a problem. I can't listen to any recordings of the Goldberg Variations anymore after hearing a performance last Saturday that I don't want to forget. (This was a recital given by Christopher Taylor, pianist and music professor here at the UW, playing a two-manual piano.) I know my sound-memory of the experience will warp and fade with time, and I'm trying my best to forestall its dissipation.

The work begins with the Aria, starting with two notes on a high G. When they are played with deliberateness, you're made to stop and listen. On Saturday, the first two notes were played slower than the Gould '55, and less slow than the Gould '81. Did time stop? It seemed as though my breathing and heartbeat did. The rest of the Aria unfolded with elegance, precision and restraint, which are emotionless and cerebral words that don't do justice to the fact that by its end I was undone. And although I have heard the notes of variation 25, the Adagio, played dozens of times before, I don't think I ever truly heard it before Saturday.

Ah, what an agonizing craving. When I let myself return to listening to the Goldbergs, I'll probably do so by playing this recording by Angela Hewitt (who'll be coming to Madison this fall, with pieces from The Well-Tempered Clavier on the program), for which she wrote her own (wonderful) liner notes.

Comments

[Kathy]

I hope you somehow convey this post to Christopher Taylor. I'm sure he would like to know someone was on the receiving end of what he was sending out. I myself can't ever recall being "undone" by music.

[Chan S.]

Oh, gosh. I'm almost vaporized by embarrassment just thinking about possibly doing that. (Worse yet, I'm within 2 degrees of separation--that is, I do know someone to whom I could convey the message who would be able to pass it on directly--which would give *all* of us the opportunity to be vaporized by embarrassment!) But yes, I was undone. Still am.

[piano lessons]

Hi,

Beethoven was the first great composer of cello sonatas.The sonata for cello and piano is approached before the sonata for violin and is then continued after the closure of the violin sonata cycle.
piano lessons