Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Trevor Pinnock :: Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

A comprehensive and ingenious performance.

10/20/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Trevor Pinnock gives us an introspective and intelligent reading of the Goldbergs on the harpsichord. Pinnock's genius effortlessly delivers the full range, from naivete to reminiscence, from gaiety to pathos, demanded by this great work.Repeats are observed selectively, so purists may be displeased, but in my opinion Pinnock's interpretation works perfectly.I would recommend owning both this disc and Glenn Gould's landmark 1981 reading. In my opinion, Pinnock outdoes Leonhardt's Goldbergs by a large margin.This is one of my "desert island" discs, without any doubt."

Also available as part of three CD set

Graham | Palo Alto, CA | 06/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Note that this fine 1980 Pinnock recording of the Goldberg Variations is also available (at a significantly lower price) as part of a three CD Pinnock collection, Bach: 6 Partitas; Goldberg Variations; French Overture; Italian Concerto



That Trio collection also includes Pinnock's 1985 recording of Bach's Six Partitas, a 1979 French Overture and a 1984 Italian Concerto."

Another Trevor Pinnock masterpiece

Richard C. Stclair | Massachusetts | 02/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I became enamoured of Trevor Pinnock's masterly harpsichordism (new word?) with his Archiv recording of JS Bach's Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue, English Suite no. 3, French Suite no. 5 and 3 preludes and fugues from the WTC.

I was brought up on Landowska and have measured Bach on keyboard by her towering standard. Pinnock is certainly in the same league as Landowska. I do not find his playing of the Golbergs 'too fast' as another reviewer commented. He plays in many tempi, from breathtakingly fast to pensively slow and everything in between, as befits such a great masterpiece as this.

For a time I was under the spell of Glenn Gould's pianoforte Bach. And Gould is a towering genius, to be sure. But I supremely enjoy Bach on the harpsichord, and Pinnock's prestidigitation is for me an unsurpassed listening experience."