JS Bach: Goldberg Variations

Our rating

5

Michael Church

Published: November 20, 2023 at 11:00 am

Our review

Víkingur Ólafsson won his spurs five years ago with his riveting compilation album Johann Sebastian Bach, in which he interwove pieces by Bach with transcriptions of chorales by himself and others. He prefaces this new recording by telling us that he’s dreamed of recording the Goldbergs for a quarter of a century, and he admits that at one stage, obsessed with the work’s formal perfection, he thought he should reflect that by mathematical means – measuring out tempo markings for every variation in search of the ideal proportions, and predetermining as many elements of the interpretation as possible, down to the articulation of almost every phrase. In practice, he says, this all fell flat, ‘because for all the formal consistency, this is not a predictable work… It beckons a kind of interpretive improvisation.’ Each variation, he says, must ‘draw us into its own marvellous little microcosm’. With the exception of the ‘Black Pearl’ variation, which lasts almost ten minutes, this is one of the fastest sets I have ever heard, yet it’s also one of the most enjoyable. Ólafsson draws on a refined palette and his touch – always flawlessly accurate – is as light as a feather. The microcosms are clearly characterised, yet, as the kaleidoscope turns, the effect is seamless. Ólafsson takes pleasure in making the bass sing sweetly in the counterpoint, and to weep as in Variation 21; Variation 15 is particularly gorgeous as each voice takes its turn under the microscope, and the trill-garlanded grace of Variation 28 is bewitching. There is just one aberration: Variation 30, so fast that its ceremonious brilliance gets lost in its own slipstream. Michael Church

JS Bach: Goldberg Variations

Víkingur Ólfasson (piano)

DG 486 4553 67:22 mins

Víkingur Ólafsson won his spurs five years ago with his riveting compilation album Johann Sebastian Bach, in which he interwove pieces by Bach with transcriptions of chorales by himself and others. He prefaces this new recording by telling us that he’s dreamed of recording the Goldbergs for a quarter of a century, and he admits that at one stage, obsessed with the work’s formal perfection, he thought he should reflect that by mathematical means – measuring out tempo markings for every variation in search of the ideal proportions, and predetermining as many elements of the interpretation as possible, down to the articulation of almost every phrase.
In practice, he says, this all fell flat, ‘because for all the formal consistency, this is not a predictable work… It beckons a kind of interpretive improvisation.’ Each variation, he says, must ‘draw us into its own marvellous little microcosm’.
With the exception of the ‘Black Pearl’ variation, which lasts almost ten minutes, this is one of the fastest sets I have ever heard, yet it’s also one of the most enjoyable. Ólafsson draws on a refined palette and his touch – always flawlessly accurate – is as light as a feather.
The microcosms are clearly characterised, yet, as the kaleidoscope turns, the effect is seamless. Ólafsson takes pleasure in making the bass sing sweetly in the counterpoint, and to weep as in Variation 21; Variation 15 is particularly gorgeous as each voice takes its turn under the microscope, and the trill-garlanded grace of Variation 28 is bewitching. There is just one aberration: Variation 30, so fast that its ceremonious brilliance gets lost in its own slipstream. Michael Church

Journalist and Critic, BBC Music Magazine

Michael Church has spent much of his career in newspapers as a literary and arts editor, and was one of the founding editors of the Independent on Sunday. He is a former television critic of The Times, and since 2010 he has been music and opera critic of The Independent. He has made BBC World Service programmes on folk music in many countries; his award-winning field-recordings of the music of Kazakhstan, Georgia and Chechnya were released on the Topic label.