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Music CD - Bach: Goldberg Variations
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Music CD: Bach: Goldberg Variations
List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $11.37
Your Save: $ 6.61 ( 37% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Telarc
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Aria
2. Variation 1
3. Variation 2
4. Variation 3 - Canone all'Unisono
5. Variation 4
6. Variation 5
7. Variation 6 - Canone alla Seconda
8. Variation 7
9. Variation 8
10. Variation 9 - Canone alla Terza
11. Variation 10 - Fughetta
12. Variation 11
13. Variation 12 - Canone alla Quarta
14. Variation 13
15. Variation 14
16. Variation 15
17. Variation 16 - Canone alla Quinta
18. Variation 17
19. Variation 18 - Canone alla Sesta
20. Variation 19
21. Variation 20
22. Variation 21 - Canone alla Settima
23. Variation 22
24. Variation 23
25. Variation 24 - Canone all'Ottava
26. Variation 25
27. Variation 26
28. Variation 27 - Canone alla Nona
29. Variation 28
30. Variation 29
31. Variation 30 - Quodilbet
32. Aria
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0089408069222
Label: Telarc
Manufacturer: Telarc
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Telarc
Release Date: 2007-08-28
Studio: Telarc
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Unnecessary
Comment: With so many great Goldberg Variations around, one can't help but wonder where the need for this album is. Don't get me wrong, it's not actually bad, but neither is it especially good. It's OK if you're a collector or are not that interested in Bach, or got this as a present, or...
However, if you're looking for a decisive version of this piece on modern piano: Go for the two versions of Glenn Gould, go for Angela Hewitt, go for the (underestimated) Andrei Gavrilov, maybe Murray Perahia's recent recording, almost any other really. The options are close to unlimited.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Probably The Best Goldberg Variations
Comment: Somehow I think that Bach's Goldberg variations are inherently ear tiring music though undoubtedly beautiful. In this performance, they become more soothing, natural, therapeutic, elegant, so on. Overall, I like this performance more than Murray Perahia's version. Also, unlike some other reviewers, I think the sound quality of the recoding is excellent.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gouldberg Variations gone bad
Comment: Fortunately for Dinnerstein, she looks nice and she got the attention of Oprah. My own preference is still for the hunched-over Gould in his sawed-off chair. Allow me, therefore, to venture a short, apocryphal comparison with the master.
Dinnerstein's use of the pedal is distracting and renders mushy the contrapuntal, percussive thrust of the piece. Bach was primarily a composer of choral works, and the Goldberg Variations are choral, too, in the sense that they counterpose two very distinct voices in a complex duet. Dinnerstein seems oddly unaware of the masterful beauty of this conversational, sometimes acrimonious and boisterous interplay, in contrast to Gould, who possessed two minds (and probably more), each pursuing its own path, sometimes in harmony, sometimes disharmoniously, with the other.
Some of Dinnerstein's interprations are simply strange. Variation 28 sounds like dinner music, no pun intended, or a starry bedtime meddly for infants. Such airiness may not be such a bad thing if one takes as true the legend that Bach wrote the Variations as a cure for an aristocrat's insomnia (the account is doubtful, in any case).
And what's happening in Variation 26? The right hand glistens along at great haste but with no character, while the left hand simply mumbles. Here, Gould brought in a regal, march-like antidote to the hyperventilation in the other hand.
Enough said. I wish I could return this CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Goldberg Variations by a human being
Comment: Although it's hardly fair to compare anyone, let alone a pianist on her debut CD, to the titan Glenn Gould, one of the 20th century's greatest pianists, Dinnerstein has brought it upon herself by choosing Gould's signature piece as her first recording.
In short, Dinnerstein has recorded a Goldberg Variations as played by a human being. Dinnerstein is a talented pianist, and her gentle, romantic Goldbergs are pleasant on the ears and will be enjoyed by just about anyone, classical music aficionado or not...
But to compare this to Gould is insane. There is none of Gould's interpretive genius, superhuman technical ability, or, um, humming. Compare Variation 14 of Dinnerstein and Gould's 1981 recording to hear the master utterly dominate the keyboard.
Customer Rating:
Summary: definitve interpretation
Comment: Nobody's audio library of Bach's music should be without this exquisite and skillful interpretation performed by Simone Dinnerstein on a old and restored Steinway. Her dynamics and execution are masterful and occasionally innovative, like the inversion of the arpeggio in bar 11 of the repeat of the first movement in the first aria (and also the final aria da capo at the end. The many movements that call for cross-hand execution are splendidly performed - sounding like two pianos indeed - but perhaps what strikes most of all is her interpretation of the 'black pearl' aria no. 25 in G minor. Its adagio opening and hauntingly chromatic shifts are performed with a mastery of art. Perhaps because it is the longest aria, Simone exceptionally does not observe the repeats at the end of the first and second parts: but that just tempts one to play it all over again. Bach we know is a winner: and so is Simone in this recording. Five stars without a reservation.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This is destined to be one of the best-remembered and significant classical releases of 2007. Simone (pronounced "See-mo-nuh") Dinnerstein has recently been attracting lots of media attention, from Oprah's magazine to The New York Times. Within a classical-music circuit increasingly unwilling to take artistic risks, hers has been the rare success story. The 30-something pianist (a former student of Peter Serkin), backing herself, wowed critics with some notable concerts and eventually secured the support of a major label to release a self-produced recording Dinnerstein had made in March 2005. This Telarc account of the Goldberg Variations thus marks her solo debut CD (following some earlier collaborations with cellist Zuill Bailey on the Delos label). For once, the publicity is trying to keep up with the musical achievement--rather than the other way around. Dinnerstein's seriousness of purpose is immediately obvious from her choice of the Bach masterpiece to make her mark. With the specter of Glenn Gould's own epoch-making 1955 debut playing the same work—not to mention a vast catalog of competing interpretations—Dinnerstein is nothing if not bold. But what's really extraordinary here is the liberating sense she conveys of its not having all been said before—without resorting to tiresome idiosyncrasies to stand apart from the crowd. Her remarkably deliberate way with the opening aria is unusual, to be sure. But it establishes the stakes for what will follow, where Dinnerstein's thoughtfulness and spectacular clarity seem to discover new facets at every turn. Her pianism embraces a prismatic array of touches, whether the feathery lightness of Variation 5, the burbling rhythms of Variation 14, or the tragic weight of the "black pearl" Variation 25. The cumulative effect is exhilarating, intensely moving, and an affirmation of the Goldbergs' infinite variety. --Thomas May
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