Bach - Goldberg Variations

Glenn Gould pf

Sony Classical SK93070 Buy now

(51’ · DDD) 

Recorded 1981. 

This astonishing performance was recorded 26 years after Gould’s legendary 1955 disc. Gould was not in the habit of re-recording but a growing unease with that earlier performance made him turn once again to a timeless masterpiece and try, via a radically altered outlook, for a more definitive account.

By his own admission he had, during those intervening years, discovered ‘slowness’ or a meditative quality far removed from flashing fingers and pianistic glory. And it’s this ‘autumnal repose’ that adds such a deeply imaginative dimension to Gould’s unimpeded clarity and pinpoint definition. The Aria is now mesmerically slow. The tremulous confidences of Variation 13 in the 1955 performance give way to something more forthright, more trenchantly and determinedly voiced, while Var 19’s previously light and dancing measures are humorously slow and precise. Var 21 is painted in the boldest of oils, so to speak, and, most importantly of all, Var 25 is far less romantically susceptible than before and has an almost confrontational assurance. The Aria’s return, too, is overwhelming in its profound sense of solace and resolution. This is surely the finest of Gould’s recordings.