Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre Hantaï :: Bach: Goldberg Variationen

After a Deliberate Opening a Wonderfully Enthusiastic Perfor

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 02/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bach's Goldberg Variations don't lack for recordings, so it takes a pretty remarkable effort to win attention. This recording on the harpsichord, first offered back in 1993, certainly is a head turner - a thrilling performance! Pierre Hantaï, still a very young musician here, plays with such verve and delight in the music it's really nearly impossible to 'harp' on much of anything. Unlike some harpsichord recordings, where a certain droning percussiveness can dominate after a while, this one enjoys sensational balances, the buoyant bright colorful sound greatly helped by a superb-sounding new harpsichord. Built to specifications of an early 18th Century model by Bruce Kennedy of Amsterdam in 1985, this is a recording of demonstration class.



After the opening Aria where Hantaï deliberately holds thing back it's a revelation when he finally lets go as he hits the Variations! It's as if a car had not quite warmed up yet, and then - Whoosh! Among the most laudatory qualities of Hantaï's playing, quite as good as the very best, I must point out the marvelous clarity he achieves in the densest passages, and his firm control of each variation's particular identity, a huge blessing in music where baroque style often breaks down into excess when a performer tries to create vivid contrasts between each section.



But it's the harpsichord's colors here that win you over. Even the most die-hard advocates for hearing the Goldberg Variations on the piano should hear this exhuberant music-making!



Hantaï has re-recorded the Goldberg in a new reading. It's reviewed as more serious and tilted to a more profound reading. Bach: Variations Goldberg, BWV 988 - Pierre Hantaï I haven't heard this latest version yet, but I certainly am tempted!"