All products were chosen independently by our editorial team. This review contains affiliate links and we may receive a commission for purchases made. Please read our affiliates FAQ page to find out more.

JS Bach: Goldberg Variations (Rondeau)

Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) (Erato)

Our rating

4

Published: March 17, 2022 at 4:16 pm

JS Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) Erato 9029650811 107:12 mins (2 discs)

Jean Rondeau, a prominent figure of the nouvelle vague of harpsichordists, adopts a spacious approach to Bach’s inspired and masterly Variations. Not for him is Gustav Leonhardt’s almost invariable disdain for repeats, for all are scrupulously observed in this two-disc album. Rondeau’s responses to the music are, by-and-large, reflective and notably free from superficial showiness. For the most part his tempos feel carefully considered and are well judged, and his articulation all that we should expect from an eloquently punctuated and inflected conversation. Intimacy, clarity and faithfulness to Bach’s music, as Rondeau understands it, are self-declared aims, laid out in the accompanying booklet, in which two consecutive, almost entirely blank pages each contain one word, silence and stille. Make of that what you will; readers of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy will know what I mean.

There is a marked rhetorical slant to Rondeau’s overview of the Goldbergs. His presentation of the Aria is full of consequence, and his narration of what follows is effective. The profound 25th Variation is commendably limpid and rhythmically supple, further benefitting from the beautifully recorded sound of the harpsichord, built in 2006 after German models. The merits of this instrument are on display throughout, as in the bell-like resonances in the upper register of Variations 14 and 26. Occasionally I sensed over-weightiness, as in Variation 24, and in an absurdly ponderous and humourless Quodlibet (Variation 30), but exhilarating moments are to be found in the robust giga of Variation 7, the joyful Variations 28 and 29 and the lightly ornamented Aria da capo.

Nicholas Anderson

More reviews

Valery Gergiev conducts works by Rachmaninov and Balakirev

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the LSO in a performance of Mendelssohn’s Symphonies Nos 1 & 4

Emily Howard’s Magnetite, Thrones, Mesmerism, Leviathan, Solar and Afferent conducted by Andrew Gourlay

Leonard Slatkin conducts Copland’s Appalachian Spring

Daniel Harding conducts Berlioz and Rameau

Symphonies by CPE Bach, Beethoven and Haydn

This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
© Our Media 2024