Thank you, Champtree.
Glenn Gould first brought the Goldberg Variations to life in his best-selling 1955 debut recording, a brash interpretation that made this "difficult" piece into child's play. He revisited the work in his final recording in 1981, shortly before his death. Only this time, deliberation was the rule, not playfulness. You can hear every voice, every line, clearly and distinctly. And the whole work is tied together by precise ratios in the change of tempo. Gould covers the range of human emotion in this piece. The stacatto in the bass of the first variation is violent and precise. The legato in the aria, especially when repeated on the final track, is tender and absorbing. Everywhere, Gould finds things -- structures and patterns -- you didn't know were there. Masterful.
I've heard many artists' visions of the Goldberg Variations, but the 1981 recording is more beautiful than the others by a wide margin. Then again, I am a huge GG devotee, and own almost his entire body of recorded work. It's out of control; for example, I have a cd recording of the 1981 Goldberg (from the A State of Wonder set), the SACD-only disc, and a VHS of the filming of the session.
Sorry this post sounds so pedantic and stock. This is what happens when you truly love a piece of music. You lose the ability to describe it. I never even try to write poetry.
