Bach - Goldberg Variations you favourite


These variations have been my constant companion for the last sixty years and I have a few firm favourites spanning that time and more. I believe they are with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations the consummate art of the western civilisation.
Could you please list which ones you listen to most.
My selection is Arrau , Gould 1955 , Schiff 1983 , Dershavina , Rana and Levit.
jim204

Showing 10 responses by mahgister

Thanks Jim204 for this thread.... And thanks for your kind words....

The problem with Richter Cantatas version is that the duration is around 30 hours long.... And i cannot stop.... :)

Even for listening the Goldberg, or the new magician Vikingur Olafsson....

We must petition Olafsson for his Golberg version soon, at least before i die..... :)
i Listen to Bach cantatas right now...(Richter)

Bach can gives to us the ability to see that all existence can be viewed simultaneously from on another plane of being and inside of it....

And this power in him is so great that Bach is probably the greatest composer that ever lived, because the others transform us by expressing emotions but Bach transmutate the emotions even before expressing them....The emotions expressed are expressed in their perfect essence...In this way Bach gives to us an organ to perceive ourself anew...

His music is not only beautiful it is nearer from perfection than anything except number theory and projective geometry that seems on par with his works....Just remember that God create the numbers to see how great Bach is really...:)

No other musician was ever so unanimously accepted as father, master, and supremum artist and NEVER challenged by any other one, only admiratively and humbly imitated even by Mozart....

Some interesting question for the human race :

Who will surpass it in the future?

And is it possible?

Is there a limit to human achievement in any field or an unsurpassable peak point in the actual state of the human mind?

Is the moral standpoint make the Arts, especially music, so much different from science in this perspective?

Perhaps the only progress that ever was and that ever will be is the elevation of the moral understanding to the same certitude level than mathematics?

All this is suggested  amazingly by Bach music only mere existence....


For the Nocturnes Arrau is the best, only if you listen his interpretation a short time each time you try it, BUT if you listen the nocturnes one times a day for your life captive on an island i cannot vouch for anything except Moravec.... :)


With Arrau the melody exist in itself.... For Moravec the melody is there only after coming from EACH chord, indirectly so to speak....

Then you listen first each note with Moravec like if only this note was essential and the only one existence in eternity.... with Arrau you listen first the melody....

With Moravec we indeed listen through Chopin own fascination for Bach and we suddenly understand it and why it makes sense and sound....

:)
Any melody can be boring on repetition, but repeating a gong note for example is never boring, the body is too much affected; Moravec playing each note in his eternal necessary color is always new jet flying out in the brain/body.... The melody is a children born out of the love of one chord for another one....

The Nocturnes and the Goldberg are so great because of these absolute mastery of writing the right chords at the right times...Then the melody becomes or show itself no more arbitrary but an eternal evidence....
I will only add the only work more perfect than the Golberg is the Art of the fugue, but the Goldberg are expression of pure joy, where the Art is pure contemplation.... 
I only describe my impression without pretending to anything....

:)
God sleep good on the 7th day because he listen to his own creature most perfect creation, the Goldberg variations...Projective geometry and prime numbers distributions are the only other contenders for perfection but too much akin to his divine works....Bach is the second son of God and more lucky if i can say without shocking anyone.... 

:)
It is also interesting to own other clavier version than piano....Harpsichord and organ... Zuzana Ruzickova version on harpsichord is exceptional and Walcha too on harpsichord .... And the trio transcripted version of Dmitry Sitkovestky by Sitkovesky.... A pure marvel....
Vladimir Feltsman....Lived in Russia after the crash of the walls...

A stupendous creative interpretation filled with a spirit that is not only virtuoso but much more pure joy....

This Bach Work is a gem among gems by the old master... And i loved all interpretations tough....

I will investigate Dershavina playings Thanks very much for the advice....