Album Reviews

Mr. Tommasini can be justly accused of reviewing live performances and recordings in a "muchly" affected manner...My 20 cents worth...

Dear Mr. Fremer. I think there is a mistake. The vinyl version of the Godberg Variations performed by Lang Lang are from the studio session. At least in Europe that is clear https://shop.decca.com/*/*/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Goldberg-Variations/6LI.... a greeting

“A high quality turntable I can't identify“!!! I didn’t think such a thing existed.
Michael, you must have Qobuz and Tidal. Do you prefer the Tidal MQA over the straight hi-rez from Qobuz?

I love Jarrett's recording on the harpsichord. That I would rate 11/8 on vinyl (recorded digitally, I guess - since it is ECM in 1989). I own some Lang Lang and I have seen him live, too. I am afraid, I agree with Mr. Tommasini. Lang Lang is always going for the show and misses the soul of the music. But (since it is rated 10/10 on analogplanet now) I will buy the double-vinyl and give it a chance. At least, I can put the blame on MF now :-)

It is clear that if many think the 1955 recording is "the definitive" one, they need to get over it as Gould even rethought the piece in is 1980's re-recording. the playing and the sound are totally different. I own both on CD and LP. I have a number of GBV recordings and I enjoy them all and expect them to be interpreted differently, every performance by any one is a "snowflake" as no two will ever be exactly alike. Who could even expect that from such a complicated piece?

Who knows, if Gould have lived a lot longer he may have even recorded it again? We would all be appreciating that as well. I am also glad that piano technology has improved greatly as hearing this well performed on a Steinway D is much preferred over a Harpsicord.

I hope many of you had the chance to watch the PBS Specials of Now Hear This with Scott Yoo, and the Bach episode in particular. All of the episodes in both series are an education in themselves.

Yes Jim...Here in Colorado Springs we have been lucky to have Scott Yoo here leading the Colorado College Summer Music Festival for over 15 years. Scott is a complete musician /educator /mentor /violinist who is as inspiring a person as any I ever encountered. Both seasons of Now Hear This can be purchased on DVD and streamed. The production values,sound and musical and cultural background presented in each show is fantastic...Music lovers will watch these videos over and over. May even convert ML into a classical music fan, they are that good.

And agreed...Any musician is entitled to interpret the GBV or any other piece with any personal take they wish. Music is a living, evolving art form.

Some reasons are superficial IMO. His mugging and other antics rub a lot of people in the wrong way. But it is fair to point out that a lot of his playing would come under fire regardless of his antics. I can understand how "casual music lovers" might not fully appreciate some of the criticism Lang Lang gets for his interpretation of Bach. But that criticism is far from baseless and does not come from a place of pure entitlement or snobbery. Yes, all classical music is open to interpretation and there is nothing wrong with liking this recording. But the critics who are roasting Lang Lang for this recording have legitimate points here. The criticism is not baseless. Not even close.

Hi everyone,
Long time lurker, first time poster. Thank you Michael for this review, and also Jim Tavegia for his comments. I am not a great expert on classical or baroque music, but the Goldberg Variations have bewitched me since I first bought a cassette (remember them?) of Glenn Gould’s 1982 recording when I was 19 or 20. I’m now 52. I can still recall the entire recording, because I listened to it incessantly during my fine art studies in Glasgow and Belfast, using the crappiest mono portable tape player you can imagine. It was in my head all day for years. To say I love it would barely describe how I feel about this music, and in particular this recording.

I was lucky enough to find an LP of Gould’s 1950’s (55?) recording. Also great, but very different to his later version. A friend gave me a double LP of my beloved Keith Jarrett playing Goldberg Variations on Harpsichord (mentioned above by Peterpani), which I still feel is a little restrained. But GBV teaches you something every time you listen, and everyone who plays it, whether you like their playing or not, brings something new and instructive. There can’t really be a definitive version, can there? Even though critics try to assert one or another recording as definitive. Even the ones I don’t much like are suggestive and evocative of new dimensions of Bach’s achievement, a pinnacle of achievement on top of a life of utter genius.

I admit I was excited to hear Lang Lang’s recordings. I am not a huge fan but I respect his technical brilliance. I really enjoyed hearing what he brought to the recordings. In fact I really enjoyed hearing such a different rendering, even though some rubato work perplexed me. I preferred the live recording. It seemed freighted with so much tension and expectation, but it was a privilege to be able to experience a really grainy, ‘live’ feel to such a momentous musical occasion, especially as none of us have been to a concert for six months. :)

I listened on Tidal and I was impressed by the presentation. However, I would love to hear what others think of the studio recording, specifically, how the recording was made rather than Lang Lang’s playing. I found there was an uncomfortable level of ‘mechanism’ in the studio takes. In particular, I could hear almost every pedal motion as a rumbling bass, and it was pretty distracting. Gould famously included every moan, sigh, mutter and thump in his 82 recording; but I did not think the Lang Lang studio take had this artefact included for aesthetic or emotional reasons - it just sounds distracting and unwelcome. Anybody else pick that up?

Haters gonna hate, but Lang Lang is an exceptional musician. Not everyone will like his version of GBV, but everyone should listen to it, if only to find out what another great artist can make of this extraordinary composition.

On another slight side topic, how did you folks find the vinyl pressings? I ask because I got some other vinyl from Deutsche Grammophon recently with very obvious non-fill distortion (Roger & Brian Eno). They kinda said meh and gave me back half the price. But I wanted a decent pressing at full price!

I love reading both Michael and Malachi’s views on Analog Planet. I promise to behave here in the comments section. :)

Best wishes to you all, stay safe
Mark

Got a bit obsessive over the Glenn Gould recordings of the Goldberg Variations. In addition to the two studio recordings there are some "live" performances that aren't as well recorded or performed. There's an interesting shift in the sound of Glenn Gould as he became more of a hermit and obsessive in the control of his recorded sound. I owned a promotional copy of the original 1955 LP on Columbia. Later recordings by Gould were on a piano he had customized by cutting away some of the wood in the action, making the piano's "touch" extraordinarily quick and detached sounding. I suppose that the intention was to make his Steinway closer in sound to a harpsichord. That first LP of the "Gouldbergs" sounds significantly different in its initial LP presentation than in the remasterings. There's been a ton of different remasterings, including a British re-pressing on an unauthorized label derived from a CD. The piano sound on the original is fuller and "fatter" than later masterings, and the sound of those later remasterings is closer to the later recordings of Gould.

I suspect that Bach didn't intend to have the variations as they are now, usually on piano and usually played in sequence, in its entirety with full repeats. Haven't heard the Lang Lang yet, but have heard plenty of other recordings. My favorite harpsichord version is Leonhardt's final recording for DHM, but there's lots of good recordings. One I'd recommend dodging is Simone Dinnerstein's, too slow and loved to death. Perahia is as fine as any. Gould's studio recordings are formidable.

My favorite is Perahia, terrific performance and gorgeous sound from the short-lived Sony SACD era. Knowledgeable classical critics who also know sound are thin on the ground. Jed Distler for sure. Who am I forgetting?

I will try and be brief. I really like this interpretation and I wish it fit on just 1 CD so as to not have to break up the performance to change the discs. It is OK, though. Even without the last track it still would have totaled over 81 minutes and no other performance of the GBV takes two discs. The slightly longer spacing between tracks may account for some of it.

I felt a couple of things about this recording none of which have me offering any negative comments about the performance. It is in my "pedestrian" opinion excellent. Lang Lang may have chosen a slower pace to his liking.

This Steinway (Hamburg?) sounds a little warmer or it may be a combination of the mics and mic preamps that make it seem this way to me. It is not unlikable, just warmer and fuller.

I also felt that the hall was slightly more reverberant with long tails that seems to last 4-5 seconds. Of course this means that the next notes are running into the fades of the previous notes, and the louder the playing the more noticeable it is. Again, not objectionable, just an observation. The quiet passages were beautiful.

I also had a sense that I was more aware of the left hand in Lang Lang's performance of the GBV than I had noticed in others in the past. It made me think about both clefs of this performance more than I had remembered of others. It is not a negative thing to me, just a variation of the Variations.

Still a winning performance IMHO and one I will listen to over and over I am sure. I will also pick up some other recommendations of the GBV performances of other artists mentioned in this thread. I'm sure I will like them as well.

this marriage of Gould, Bach and Guided By Voices come about?

and listened to his Live Goldberg. Over-affected. Lang Lang gives no room for my own head cinema like other interpreters. After that I played Jarrett (sticks with - I counted them today - 18 other Goldberg records in my shelf). I am still with him. His "mechanical" playing like a clock, restricted, but you can feel the energy and volcano behind his playing. The opposite to Lang Lang.

I feel that her playing is magnificent and the recording a 10 out of 10. The room has just the right amount of natural, room reverb. I am guessing another Hamburg Steinway and no mention of the recording hall or the piano technician, things that I am oddly interested in.

I was not familiar with her before, so I will have to pick up more of her playing. Thanks for the recommendation.

Micro-Seiki

Maker should get more attention in the US press.