JS Bach:
Goldberg Variations (BWV 988)
József Eötvös (Guitar)
This recording is beautiful, elegant and controlled and just short of 63 minutes. I forget that this is a solo guitar, the music transcends the instrument through a fluid of unity that is rare. That may be Bach's design but Eötvös has captured and produced something superior amongst such recordings. Unfortunately it is only available from the artist, (and even then his website is broken and you will have to email him):
Jözsef Eötvös
Anyhow, this 10 minute You Tube video is an excellent taster, (if the audio is sub par):
Aria & Variations 1 - 6
The Listenings:
- 13/01/08 @ 2350
- 14/01/08 @ 1633
- 16/01/08 @ 2303
- 17/01/08 @ 1738
- 20/01/08 @ 0202
- 22/01/08 @ 1048
- 27/01/08 @ 11 20
This work is over 60 minutes duration. That presented difficulties - just finding the time for starters. I had several false starts where I was interrupted by others - especially with the 7th listening. Another issue was that I'd be so tired after work that just sitting down and making an effort to soak up some B Influence would put me to sleep, proper 1st state sleep. So again, timing each listening is important. On the other hand, just because I say I'm going to listen to a CD recording of Bach's Variations shouldn't mean it's plain sailing easy efforts. It shouldn't surprise that this effort took effort to complete. My admiration for József Eötvös still stands, even those extraordinary delicate thin 'weak' lines in the upper register of the instrument manage to hold and contain, nothing is lost. Eötvös' playing has to be described as impeccable.
6 comments:
This is a great find.
Sometimes all guitar transcriptions sound Spanish. This is different.
It may be sacrilege, but I may see more in the Goldberg Variations in this transcription than in the usual keyboard recordings. The GV have never been high on my list of Bach works for one reason or another...
This is not Bach, but it's simple and pleasant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MipBPgtT1P8
I bought this recording by Eötvös sometime before Christmas. It was a bit of effort because his old website was broken and his email had changed. When I did contact him, the link he gave to purchase from his latest website was also broken. But I just arranged a Paypal payment via email. I had the disc a week later. I've played it endlessly. It's just awesome, I cannot recommend it enough. Everyone should own it. It is a summit recording. I personally have had a journey with the Goldberg. It was one of the first works I ever attempted by Bach. I think it may have been Trevor Pinnock. It was definitely on harpsichord. I didn't get it at all at any level. And I never forgot how much I disliked it, it was that unbearable! That was 20 years ago. Then a few years back I picked up a reissue of Glenn Gould, package as a triple CD set, A State Of Wonder. I suppose it sort of fitting that an eccentric like Gould would open my ears to the Goldberg. I listened to Gould so much, it's a personal favourite. Then I discovered some reviews of this Hungarian guitarist.
On a different subject I posted this comment on a post at my Fourth Way blog that you may not see since it's down the page some now:
"I think I see what you meant by machine. All these laws we are in the grasp of now, even when one develops beyond them. The ones you can't cut loose from until death.
(See? You have to use the language of the Work so that we can be understood. Laws...)"
If by machine you really did mean laws.
I think I've written before that I developed a prejudice against the musical form 'variations' early on, seeing them as not being pure music but being more pedagogical exercises (which of course they usual are meant to be, but they also rise to something else in the world of music, but I still see them, prejudicially, as pedagogic exercises nonetheless. Because I'm prejudiced against them.)
Beethoven composed a set of variations (I actually am far enough now away from my classical music period that I almost forget the name, Diabelli Variations?) that are taken to be almost mystical.
Your prejudice may have some justification. I don't know I'm not a musicologist. What is certain is that this particular recording is rather special. It reaches the parts of centres that other recordings just don't!
This is not the first time you've recommended something that can only be attained by emailing a phone booth in some central European country...
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