J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations

MCD0102
CD
€ 20.00
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Malcolm Proud – harpsichord


"To record the Goldbergs is not only a technical challenge: the player must also carry the listener through 80 minutes of music of great likeness yet variety. Malcolm Proud succeeds triumphantly on both counts. His account is authoritative rather than idiosyncratic, founded on superb technical control and a sense of every detail's place in the whole. Ornaments and rhythmic placings are subtle, selective and therefore always meaningful. There's a great energy, particularly in the springy bass lines of Variations 1 and 3 or in the sweep of the French Overture; there's a beguiling ease in some of the trickiest movements, e.g. Variation 11. Yet Proud can also smile: Variation 23 captures the almost Lego-like effect of playing with basic musical building-blocks. By the time he reached the closing Quodlibet and reprise of the aria, I was sad that such a performance should be coming to an end. Strongly recommended."
(Stephen Rose)


....What luxuriant times we live in. I cannot imagine being without at least a dozen of the numerous interesting recordings on harpsichord of Bach’s variation masterpiece, the Goldbergs. A handful of them at least seem effortlessly to retain their place high on the Parnassian slopes, and among these I would cite Malcolm Proud (Maya), Gustav Leonhardt (Teldec), Maggie Cole (Virgin), and Pierre Hantaï (Mirare). To this select group I shall now add the new version by Andreas Staier......
(Classical Music.com, The official website of BBC Music Magazine)