About us / Contact

The Classical Music Network

Zurich

Europe : Paris, Londn, Zurich, Geneva, Strasbourg, Bruxelles, Gent
America : New York, San Francisco, Montreal                       WORLD


Newsletter
Your email :

 

Back

Authoritative Bach

Zurich
Tonhalle
12/05/2010 -  
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
András Schiff (piano)


A. Schiff


This supreme musical masterwork, which has enthralled legions of scholars and performers for ages, was meant to put its first audience to sleep! The work is believed to have been a gift to a Count Kayserling, an influential musical devotee, who had secured for Bach an appointment as official composer to the Saxon court. The Count suffered from bouts of insomnia and had hired one of Bach's finest pupils, the fourteen-year old Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to play for him during his restless nights. Bach wrote this piece to soothe the Count.


Great Bach pianists are constantly drawn back to the Goldberg Variations, a work which is exceptional in every sense, the pinnacle – some, including Schiff, say – was the pinnacle of his keyboard achievement. Glenn Gould famously recorded them twice, at the beginning and end of his life, producing wildly different readings on each occasion. Gould, Schiff says, is "an artist you should admire but not copy".


Schiff does not present the work in a forbidding or austere way and is both poetic and elastic. No examination of every musical strand and digging deep into the heart of the human condition; Schiff, if possible, avoids conflict and pain. His performance had buoyancy, and the performance was consistently vibrant and upbeat. Needless to say, one marvelled at his dexterity in the faster variations, elegance, measure and refinement in the quieter variations.


The performance was on the brisk side, and I appreciated the quick tempos. What might be lost in emotional content was more than made up for through Schiff's urgency of expression.



When Schiff performs these variations, there is nothing else on the programme. The Goldbergs stand alone, played with all repeats, a performance that takes about 70 minutes. And apparently he never plays an encore. Ideally he would prefer no applause at the end, just a wonderful silence. So Schiff kept his hands hovering above the keyboard at the end as if he was about to start yet another variation. There was indeed therefore a wonderful silence before the audience rose to their feet to show their rightful appreciation of a truly authoritative performance.



John Rhodes

 

 

Copyright ©ConcertoNet.com