Bach: Goldberg Variations (2011)

"Bach purifies me: he offers me a new view on life, never mind what he brings in purely pianistic terms," said U.S.-born and Paris-trained pianist Nicholas Angelich. None of this makes a great deal of sense; Bach of course brought nothing in purely pianistic terms, and purification isn't something his patrons and audiences would have much associated with his secular keyboard music. What you're getting here is old-school Romantic Bach, with pedals, crescendos, a whole palette of articulation and attack, and in general an ... Read More

"Bach purifies me: he offers me a new view on life, never mind what he brings in purely pianistic terms," said U.S.-born and Paris-trained pianist Nicholas Angelich. None of this makes a great deal of sense; Bach of course brought nothing in purely pianistic terms, and purification isn't something his patrons and audiences would have much associated with his secular keyboard music. What you're getting here is old-school Romantic Bach, with pedals, crescendos, a whole palette of articulation and attack, and in general an episodic freedom in its approach to the notes on the page. If that's what you're after, Angelich may fill the bill. His recording clocks in at 79 minutes, 58 seconds, just two seconds shy of the usual maximum for a single CD. This is longer than most recordings (although there are a few that spill over onto a second disc), but his variations aren't especially slow for the most part; the extra time comes mostly in the bafflingly deliberate treatment of the opening aria, its return at the... Read Less