Bach Goldberg Variations
A pair of harpists create drama and delicacy in contrasting Goldbergs
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Magazine Review Date: 3/2009
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 4778097
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Goldberg Variations |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Catrin Finch, Harp Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Lontano
Magazine Review Date: 3/2009
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Catalogue Number: 2564 69199-6
Author: William Yeoman
Blassel’s is an exquisite reading: the Aria is played almost with a surfeit of warmth and delicacy, as if to impress the potential of its material upon the listener from the outset so as to allow a fuller savouring of the ensuing variations – which are all, without exception, played with a great feeling for overall architecture and interior expressiveness that recalls Hewitt and Tureck in equal measure.
The first time I heard Welsh harpist Catrin Finch live, she played Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor; I was surprised by how much of the colour and drama of the organ original she managed to convey. Here, of course, we have quite a different set of circumstances: the work itself simultaneously finer in texture and grander in scale, the performance a recorded one. And yet there’s colour and drama aplenty – witness the grandeur and sweeping tirades of Variation 17.
Finch observes most of the repeats; tempi are generally on the brisk side; tonal and dynamic variation is minimal but telling when it occurs. Blassel observes no repeats (thus leaving room on the disc for the 14 Goldberg Canons, which Blassel performs with his former teacher Fabrice Pierre); tempi are generally measured, especially in the canonic variations; tonal and dynamic variation is maximal, as is the variety of articulation.
Perhaps it’s to do with the differences between the instruments – Finch’s modern harp is bright and thickly resonant; Blassel’s 1904 Erard delicate and muted – but Finch’s playing is more extrovert and forthright (although sometimes, as in Var 25, disappointingly prosaic), Blassel’s more introvert and nuanced (you’ll never hear a more magically delicate account of Var 28). Either way, both versions have much to recommend them.
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