Jean Rondeau’s Goldberg Variations clocks in at 107 minutes, observing all the repeats, including those in the Aria da capo. This has less to do with the tempos per se (although some are quite slow) than with the harpsichordist’s frequent use of tenutos, caesuras and breath pauses. This yields extra seconds that ultimately add up to minutes. For instance, Rondeau often eases into a variation’s A or B section, working his way up to establishing a basic tempo mid-bar. And he usually leaves a little space between these sections, sometimes connecting them with improvised flourishes. In addition, Rondeau’s liberal embellishments usually require extra metrical wiggle room.

Yet unlike other expansive and stylistically similar traversals (Richard Egarr’s recording, for example – Harmonia Mundi, 6/06), Rondeau’s high rhetoric never stops the music in its tracks. His mesmerising legato finger technique and specificity of articulation consistently hold interest, along with the subtle fluidity of his inner rhythm. A good example of this can be found in Var 13, where Rondeau shapes the right-hand cantabiles like Maria Callas in full flow, counterbalanced by variegated left-hand support. Rather than ploughing straight ahead through Var 14’s cross-handed runs, Rondeau engages them in confrontational dialogue with unorthodox ritards and abrupt fermatas. Around 36 seconds of silence separate Var 15’s conclusion and the start of Var 16’s French Overture. Var 20’s two-manual finger-twisting interplay emerges as a real conversation, where accents and points of melodic emphasis draw one’s attention away from the bar lines. Similar observations apply to Var 23’s imitative writing and scale passages. Rondeau takes 10 minutes to get through the celebrated ‘Black Pearl’ 25th variation, where his canny spacing of notes intensifies the wrenching chromaticism’s tension and release. Yet similar deliberation over Var 30’s Quodlibet completely undermines the music’s boisterous point.

The resonant sound befits Rondeau’s epic conception, although, among recent versions, I miss the bristling transparency of Blandine Rannou’s interpretatively comparable recording (Zig-Zag Territoires, 4/12), not to mention Mahan Esfahani’s audacious variety and vivid characterisations from variation to variation (DG, 10/16). Yet there’s no doubt that Jean Rondeau realises his intentions with a distinctive and authoritative voice.