Bach, J S - Goldberg Variations - Schiff, András (piano)

---

---

OPUS REKOMMENDERAR

"Schiff is the master colourist who, like Glenn Gould in his later Sony recording, achieves impressive continuity between variations. Contrasts, too and never more so than in the sequence of variations Nos 20 to 22, taking us from brilliantly realised syncopations, to a glowering canon in sevenths then dipping suddenly for the intimate "stile antico" of the four-part 22nd variation. ... As for overall style, repeats are often embellished, sometimes radically varied, such as the underlined counterpoint of No 8' s first repeat and the shift from staccato to legato in No. 11. ... This is a fascinating, beautiful, deeply pondered and profoundly pianistic "Goldbergs", and while not "authentic" in the accepted scholarly sense, it is appreciative of Baroque manners and ornamentation."
(Gramophone)

András Schiff returns to the Goldberg Variations in what will be regarded as one of the classical music events of the year. Two decades after his acclaimed account of the Variations for Decca, Schiff documents Bach's towering masterpiece again, this time in a live recording for ECM New Series. As the New York Times said, "Mr Schiff is, in Bach, a phenomenon. He has quite simply internalized this music. He doesn't so much perform it as emit, breathe it." The fluency of the playing in this concert recording from Basel is quietly astonishing, the technical demands of the work transcended with uncanny gracefulness.

András Schiff, piano

Recorded October 2001