Strip away the glitz and glamour, and ignore the media circus that seems to surround every appearance he makes, and Lang Lang is a highly talented pianist, and a serious-minded musician. Bach’s Goldberg Variations certainly isn’t a work to take on unless you’re a serious musician, and though the release of Lang’s recording has been surrounded by the usual hype, it’s a signal, surely, that he wants to be judged on his merits as an artist rather than as a celebrity.
His recording is released in a “de luxe edition” that includes two performances spread extravagantly across four discs. One was recorded under studio conditions, the other is taken from a concert that Lang gave in the Thomaskirche, Bach’s church in Leipzig, in early March this year.
Unfortunately the lavishness of the packaging isn’t the only indulgence here. There are flashes of perfectly weighted, stylistically appropriate playing, but too much of Lang’s performances seems to squeeze all the energy out of the music, with tempi that are achingly slow and phrasing that is so mannered it sometimes seems more appropriate for Rachmaninov than Bach. He seems to love the music so much he suffocates it: the 15th variation, the canon at the fifth, is so measured it almost grinds to a halt; the last of them, the Quodlibet, is so stately that the quiet re-emergence of the Aria loses its usual magic.
The Thomaskirche performance is marginally the less studied and self-indulgent of the two; tempi are generally a bit faster, the piano sound a little leaner and not so fulsome. But there are still moments when Lang’s mannerisms and rubato appear entirely contrived, and the ornaments with which he decorates the repeats seem to be added out of good manners rather than instinctively. Among piano versions of the Goldberg, if Glenn Gould’s recordings remain unsurpassed for many of us, there are plenty of other options for those allergic to Gould, from András Schiff and Igor Levit to Peter Serkin and Angela Hewitt. Lang’s performance doesn’t come close to any of those.
This week’s other pick
Igor Levit’s latest release for Sony Classical is Encounter, a fascinatingly linked pair of discs beginning with Busoni’s transcriptions of 10 of Bach’s Chorale Preludes and ending with Morton Feldman’s final piano work, Palais de Mari. There are arrangements of Brahms, too – Busoni’s versions of the organ Chorale Preludes, the last pieces Brahms wrote, and Reger’s transcriptions of the Four Serious Songs. It’s a sequence of increasing introspection, steadily stripping away inessentials, until all that’s left are Feldman’s gentle spare phrases, all beautifully rendered by Levit.
In March 2020 Lang Lang gave only his second ever live performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Leipzig’s historic St Thomas Church where the composer worked and is now buried. “Playing in St Thomas’ Church, where Bach is buried, was unbelievably emotional for me,” recalled the superstar pianist. “I’ve never felt as close to a composer as I did during that recital.”
Lang Lang has realised his lifelong dream by recording Bach’s Goldberg Variations
Lang Lang studied Bach’s iconic composition for 20 years before finally realising his lifelong dream by recording the Goldberg Variations. He has released two complementary performances of the Goldberg Variations: a studio recording and a live performance recorded at St Thomas’ Church in Leipzig. The two recordings can be purchased together as a super deluxe edition, the first simultaneous live and studio album release for the Goldbergs, offering fascinating insights into the art of interpretation.
Bach’s Goldberg Variations is one of the greatest works ever written for the keyboard and demands total spiritual focus from the performer. The collection was first published in 1741 and consists of 30 variations, introduced and concluded by a single ‘aria’.
Goldberg Variations Extended Edition includes seven bonus tracks
Lang Lang will release a series of new recordings from his forthcoming Goldberg Variations Extended Edition, which will be digitally released on 12 February 2021. The new version of his acclaimed recording includes seven bonus tracks – four of which will be digitally released on Friday 20 November.
“The more time I spent with the Goldberg Variations, the more I wanted to know about Bach, his contemporaries and the composers he later inspired,” explained Lang Lang. “From a vocal number by Stölzel that was obviously popular in the Bach household and a work by the young Goldberg himself, to a beautiful miniature by Schumann – who loved and studied Bach throughout his life – via solo piano arrangements of some of Bach’s loveliest vocal and instrumental writing, all seven of the pieces I’ve just recorded as part of this project have added to my understanding of his music.”
Four new tracks released on 20 November
The four new tracks being released on 20 November are Bist Du Bei Mir, an aria by Bach’s slightly younger contemporary Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel which appears in transcription in the Anna Magdalena Notebook, an arrangement of the ‘Sinfonia’ from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Wilhelm Kempff’s transcription for solo piano of the Siciliano from Bach’s Second Flute Sonata and the ‘Andante’ from Bach’s Italian Concerto.
A fifth single, Arabesque by Robert Schumann, will be digitally released on 15 January 2021. The extended edition will also include a contemplative arrangement of Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze which Lang Lang has recorded with his wife, the German-Korean pianist Gina Alice, and the ‘Andante’ from Johann Gottlieb Goldberg’s Sonata in D major.
Lang Lang’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has received international acclaim since it was released in September. Gramophone described it as “the musical equivalent of a cinematic epic”, ArtsJournal in the United States declared the release “is easily his finest achievement” and, in London, The Times praised Lang Lang as “a mature and individual performer, fully engaged with Bach’s genius”.