Goldberg variations.

Dear Gianluigi,

I have a Thread, which I want to post here, but it will take a week of trying to do the work first, so you will have a nice read either next weekend or the weekend after. All the best from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Dear Gianluigi,

I have a Thread, which I want to post here, but it will take a week of trying to do the work first, so you will have a nice read either next weekend or the weekend after. All the best from Fredrik

I'll wait!

quote:

Originally posted by jrr:
Still Rosalyn Turecks: Goldberg variations

jrr,

So, I have now had a chance to hear her version a half dozen or so times. Certainly, her tempi are very, um, deliberate. This is the only version I know of that runs on to a second CD, not that any musical interpretation should be a race. (Though GG buzzed through his 1955 version in 38'26; sans repeats, but pretty blazing still!) Great music making, and I like it very much. Rosalyn Tureck certainly deserves the CD's title as one of the "Great Pianists of the 20th Century". She has not supplanted Angela Hewitt as my favorite version of the Goldbergs, but the CD(s) will certainly see the CD drawer with regularity. One problem: being on two CDs, the iPod has no idea how to go from variation 25 to 26!?

Norman

Duration of performances of the Goldberg Variations.

It often quite amuses me to see the time duration of a performance be taken as a guiding consideration of the quality or even nature of the performance. Every section can be doubled in length (in terms of numbers of bars performed if not precise time duration, of course) and if every repeat were taken then a normal duration would be about 90 minutes. Even Glenn Gould (assuming he misses all the repeats) would take roughly 77 minutes to play the set, based on the timing above. I have a disc of Leonhardt that takes almost exactly 45 minutes to play it all without any repeats, and it ceratinly is not slow. I have never encountered a performance on disc that takes all repeats [Turreck?], but certainly know that when Tatianna Nicholeaeva performed it at Saint Johns Smith Square in the late 80s she did take all the repeats. In that case she arrived home some 88 minutes later! That was not slow either.

Unless all repeats are taken or non (both valid of course, and just as valid as choosing to omit a few repeats) then no sensible comparisons are possible. Obviously there is a need to consider that the top length of a CD release will be something a few seconds short of 80 minutes, so unless the performance is very fast indeed, there will be obvious commercial pressure to cut some repeats!

C'est la vie! Fredrik

I did not imply that duration was one of my criteria for quality. I did, however, comment on how deliberate her tempi were, slower in many movements than in my previous experience. Again, I did not imply that tempo was a determinate of quality.

Norman

Dear Norman,

I think you read my post as a ripost to you, which it certainly was intended to be, but rather a general point about the observation that some performances of the Goldbergs are longer in time duration than others. From what I wrote above it will be clear that this is not any indicator of the actual tempi. Any reasonably paced performance that actually takes every repeat, which incidentally I happen to think makes the most sense of all the various options I have encountered even though it is not the only valid option, would always over-run one CD!

I am sorry it might have looked as a direct corrective to you! If that had been the intention I would have addressed it to you, rather than addressed it ad hominem. I hope you can accept the apology for the imprecision on my part. I am sorry for it.

All the best from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Dear Norman,

I think you read my post as a ripost to you, which it certainly was [NOT] intended to be, ...
All the best from Fredrik

Oh dear Norman,

I am useless - these is a great big NOT missing from that, which must have made that look very confusing. Sorry! [Really sad low bandwidth smiley].

Useless Fred strikes again...

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Sorry! [Really sad low bandwidth smiley].

Thank you Fredrik,

Communication by electronic means can be imprecise at best. Let's carry on as before.

I apologize for my tardy reply; I just returned from a friend's wedding in Las Vegas. Elvis officiated and was in excellent voice. He also had lost some weight since his more recent photos, and looked quite good, all things considered. A grand time was had by all, and best of all, I ended the evening with more money than I began with!

Norman

Dear Norman,

Sounds like a good sort of weekend! Fredrik