In 2007 I recommended Bob van Asperen’s recording of Bach’s Well-tempered
Klavier on two budget-price Virgin Veritas twofers (3 49963
2 – see review
– and 3 85795 2: Bargain of the Month – see review).
I actually purchased the first set on the strength of having heard
the review copy of the second. Now his recordings of the early
Toccatas and the late Goldberg Variations, originally
issued on two EMI Resonance CDs in the early 1990s, join them
in that series. On their first appearances they received very
different receptions: while the Toccatas were generally
praised, the Goldbergs were thought to be variable, with
very slow tempi in some of the variations preventing an overall
recommendation.
The Toccatas are early works, influenced
by Buxthude’s stylus phantasticus – remember the famous
long-distance walk to Hamburg to hear the master perform.
Though very different from the keyboard music which would follow,
especially the organ toccatas, and somewhat neglected, perhaps
for that reason, they make an interesting programme. At just
over an hour, they’re ideal for a CD. There is much less competition
for this half of the reissue; if you like Bach on the piano,
Angela Hewitt represents the main rival (CDA67310, dubbed by
Kirk McElhearn ‘a unique insight into what are some of his freest
keyboard works’ – see review).
As it happens, Angela Hewitt and Glenn Gould (see
KM’s review
of Volume 2, current number 88697 14846 2 – Volume 1 seems no
longer available in the UK) are the two exceptions which I make
to my general dislike of Bach on the modern piano, but van Asperen
adds a touch of historical interest. Not only does he employ
the harpsichord – at this very early stage Bach is unlikely
to have intended any of his music for the new-fangled fortepiano
– but the instrument is so valuable that it can be recorded
only in situ in a Hamburg museum. Fortunately, as with
the recordings of the Well-tempered Klavier, made under
the same conditions, the recording venue is a sympathetic one,
or the engineers have made it so. I was completely won over
by this first CD; unless you can’t stand the harpsichord and
must have Angela Hewitt, or Kevin Bowyer on the organ (Nimbus
NI70778, 2 CDs) this will do very nicely.
As if to emphasise the ‘fantastic’ or imaginative
nature of the Toccatas, Virgin have chosen for the cover
a most striking image of the man in the moon, from a stained-glass
window in Rouen, dating from the 1520s. Interestingly, French
artists were depicting the modern image of the man in the moon’s
face at a time when their English contemporaries visualised
a man weighed down underneath a burden of thorns in punishment
for a theft. Have a look at the full moon and you’ll find that
both images work.
Competition is much more fierce in the Goldberg
Variations, with Angel Hewitt’s piano version widely regarded
as the most satisfactory contender, a five-star performance
and recording for Gerald Fenech (Hyperion CDA67305 – see review);
Kenneth Gilbert’s budget-price harpsichord version is also highly
regarded (Harmonia Mundi HMA195 1240, on sale in the UK for
£5 or less). My own benchmark remains Trevor Pinnock (DG Archiv
477 5902 at mid price; the 3-CD set, 474 3372, is no longer
available).
Comparisons are particularly difficult to make
because the Goldbergs with all repeats taken would exceed
the 80-minute CD length; different interpreters omit different
repeats. Pinnock’s overall time of 60:45 against van Asperen’s
79:18 reflects not only the latter’s often slowish tempi but
also Pinnock’s tendency to omit more repeats. Pinnock makes
clear the omissions of repeats which he has made – in both the
opening and closing statements of the Aria and in Variations
3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29. The Virgin
notes don’t indicate van Asperen’s shortenings; in fact, he
omits those in Nos. 12, 19, 24, 25 and 27 and the final
Aria.
Despite his offering less music for your money,
I generally prefer Pinnock’s performances to those of van Asperen.
A particular case in point is Variation 7 (tr.8 on both recordings),
now known to have been marked al tempo di Giga, as indicated
in the Archiv track listing. Van Asperen’s tempo for this variation
is lively enough, with quite a lift to the rhythm; perfectly
satisfactory until you hear the extra spring in Pinnock’s performance.
More seriously, van Asperen takes Variation 15
(tr.16 on both recordings), marked Andante, too slowly;
an amble rather than a walk. Pinnock, who omits the repeat
here, is much closer to walking pace, as is Hewitt (also tr.16);
like Asperen, she observes the repeat but takes a whole minute
less. He, however, quickly atones with a performance of Variation
16 which is just as sparkling as Pinnock’s (tr.17 on both recordings).
The Goldbergs may be serious stuff, with
nine examples of that intellectual game, the canon, as in the
Musical Offering and Art of Fugue, but Bach’s
employment of a quodlibet – literally ‘what you please’
– as the final variation where we might have expected another
canon, shows that the music is not to be taken entirely seriously.
Both van Asperen and Pinnock bring out the fun of this quodlibet,
which draws on two popular folk songs:
Ich bin so lang
bei dir g’west
[I’ve been with you so long]
and
Kraut und Rüben
haben mich vertrieben,
hätt’ meine Mutter
Fleisch gekocht wär ich länger geblieben
[Cabbage and turnips have
driven me away; if my mother had cooked meat I’d have stayed
longer]
If you’re trying the Pinnock version, don’t judge
by his performance of the opening theme, the Aria on
track 1; like van Asperen, he takes this very sedately – both
sound a little dutiful. At this tempo 2:33 of Pinnock, omitting
the repeat, is enough; 5:09 of van Asperen, I fear, was a little
too much for me. Angela Hewitt’s 4:12, with repeats, sounds
much more like it – elegant and unhurried, but far from merely
dutiful.
Both van Asperen and Pinnock omit repeats in the
final Aria but here, typically, Pinnock brings a touch
of extra liveliness and is therefore slightly preferable to
van Asperen. Hewitt also omits the repeat here and comes in
slightly faster than either of her competitors.
Pinnock isn’t universally faster, however; speed
isn’t the only criterion – his version of Variations 1 and 2
are actually marginally slower than van Asperen’s. Even in
Variation 3 his tempo is not markedly different from Asperen’s
allowing for the fact that this is the first occasion after
the Aria in which he omits the repeat and Asperen includes
it. In that quodlibet at the end of the work (tr.31
on both recordings) he’s actually very marginally slower than
van Asperen.
Van Asperen employs a 1719 Mietke harpsichord for
the Goldbergs, a type of instrument which Bach is known
to have owned earlier in his career; Pinnock’s 1646 Ruckers
instrument is, theoretically, less appropriate, but both sound
well, the Mietke producing a slightly brighter sound, at least
as recorded.
Pinnock’s 1980 recording is ADD – surprising, because
DG were already making digital recordings – but in no way inferior
to the Virgin. Honours are about equal in this respect; in
neither case does any aspect of the engineering interfere with
enjoyment of the music. In van Asperen’s case, both the Hamburg
museum and Charlottenburg Palace seem to have been good recording
venues.
The Virgin booklet contains cut-down versions of
the original notes from the full-price issue. Whilst they are
adequate, containing information for beginners about the background
to the Toccatas and how the Goldbergs came to
be named after the harpsichordist of the insomniac Count Keyserlinck
or Keyserling – why not Keyserlinck Variations? – and
the importance of the variation form in Bach’s later music,
I’d have liked a little more detail. I can’t comment on the
current reissue of the Pinnock, since I have it in its original
full-price format, with a decent English translation of Roswith
Borschel’s notes, rather fuller than those of the Virgin reissue.
Virgin already had a recommendable budget-price
Veritas twofer containing the Goldbergs, performed by
Maggie Cole (5 61555 2, with Italian Concerto, Chromatic
Fantasia and Fugue, etc.). By coincidence, Cole’s version
of the Goldbergs came out at almost exactly the same
time as van Asperen’s and was generally preferred to his account.
If you’re looking for a good bargain version, either Cole or
Gilbert on the Harmonia Mundi single CD are safer bets. Pinnock
at mid price remains my benchmark among harpsichord versions.
Listening to the extracts from Angela Hewitt’s recording on
the Hyperion website has made me think that this is, perhaps
even more than Pinnock, the version to have; it’s on my want
list.
The van Asperen reissue is something of a curate’s
egg, then, with CD1 far superior to CD2. I can’t award half
a thumbs-up, but the first disc deserves the accolade. I don’t
want to give the impression, however, that I didn’t enjoy both
CDs. I shall certainly keep the set, alongside the Pinnock
Goldbergs; chiefly for the sake of the Toccatas,
but I shall also play van Asperen’s second CD, too. None of
my reservations represent capital offences.
If the Goldbergs inspire you to explore
Bach’s other great late work in variation form, the Art of
Fugue, try Helmut Walcha on DG Archiv 477 6508 (2 CDs). It’s
recently been deleted but copies may still be around, or download
it from passionato.com
in very acceptable 320kbps mp3 sound. This was DG’s first stereo
recording (1955) but it still sounds extremely well. I intend
to review this recording in more detail in my June, 2009, Download
Roundup.
Brian
Wilson
