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Simone Dinnerstein
Is her Goldberg Variations as good as The New York Times (and other reviews) claims? In a word, yes.
No, it doesn't displace Gould for me, but it comes closer than I thought any recording ever would. I'm a Gould-obsessive who resold his Murray Perahia recording of the Goldbergs in disgust and never cottoned to the Goldbergs on harpischord (Egarr and Hantai being truly splendid, however). Schepkin, Hewitt, Tipo, and Peter Serkin were fine, Pi-hsien Chen was surprisingly good, Schiff wasn't so hot, and then there was Gould, Gould, Gould. After Gould, I was just as happy to hear the transcribed version for guitar.
Now there is another.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 30, 2007 at 08:12 PM in Music | Permalink
Comments
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Posted by: paul at Aug 30, 2007 9:39:21 PM
Simone is playing the variations at the Dallas Museum of Art next month. Mrs. A and I are going to check it out.
Posted by: angus at Aug 30, 2007 9:55:27 PM
Tyler,
Do you ever make comments about works of art that aren't just some sort of ranking or thumbs up - thumbs down evaluation? You're a smart guy and you can absorb cultural works extremely fast, but most of your blog comments don't offer much at all in the way of analysis of why you like something.
To cite an astonishing example of analytical criticism on a blog, here's Michael Blowhard on "300":
http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2007/03/300_2.html
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Aug 30, 2007 11:04:35 PM
Tyler,
Do you ever make comments about works of art that aren't just some sort of ranking or thumbs up - thumbs down evaluation? You're a smart guy and you can absorb cultural works extremely fast, but most of your blog comments don't offer much at all in the way of analysis of why you like something.
To cite an astonishing example of analytical criticism on a blog, here's Michael Blowhard on "300":
http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2007/03/300_2.html
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Aug 30, 2007 11:04:55 PM
Sorry, I don't see it. Dinnerstein's variation 5 is a disaster. Other variations are too Romantic. She has a very nice touch and I can see why it might remind one of Gould's unique and irreproducible bouncing Baroque style, but I don't think the work succeeds as a whole. If I could combine the two, I'd mix Gould's later Goldberg recording with Pinnock's harpsichord version. The harpischord is brutal on many of the variations, but Pinnock's playing is quite perfect on some of them. His variation 1 is my favorite.
Posted by: Henrik Mintis at Aug 30, 2007 11:29:39 PM
Yes, I absolutely agree that this is one of the finest Goldberg's to come around in a while. The similarity to
Gould, to my mind, begins with Ms. Dinnerstein's clarity of counterpoint and voicing, a truly creative insight into
alternative voicings in some of the variations especially, and it ends with her occasional displays of sheer
virtuosity. What is most interesting to me about this performance is that she clearly has the chops to put much
more up-tempo virtuosity into her playing than she does, but she clearly chooses not to, probably in order to
explore some of these creative voicings. Unlike Gould and like some others I am drawn to, such as Konstantin
Lifschitz, she takes all the repeats and finds plenty interesting to bring out in doing so. I am hearing this
recording now only for the second time and find that I will have to repeat it much more often to catch all of what
she is doing. For her's is a far more cerebral performance than I'm used to hearing in someone with her precision.
I'm rather drawn to the overpowering passion that Lifchitz, and to some extent Gould, finds in his approach to the
music. Dinnerstein's clearly has passion, but it is a passion for a patient kind of discovery in motion rather than
the bursting ebullience and muscular energy of Lifschitz. Anyway, she has caught me unexpectedly, and will now
no doubt get a fair amount of my attention.
Posted by: Daniel Rose at Aug 30, 2007 11:48:54 PM
Tyler,
Which Gould version do you prefer, the early version, or the later one?
Posted by: Paul Homchick at Aug 31, 2007 12:09:14 AM
Well, I see that I am outclassed. I only have two recordings of the Goldberg Variations, and only one of them by Gould ;-)
FWIW, I prefer the other one, a rather straight one by cembalist Blandine Verlet.
Posted by: Harald Korneliussen at Aug 31, 2007 5:05:59 AM
Paul and Steve: I don't think asking deeper questions will be profitable. Tyler is on record as saying he skims books and reads only their beginnings in most cases. He is also on record as being interested in deception (to wit, his recent experiment about the secret blog). Most of his lists of favorites could have come from a Top Ten list published by any existing critic. What I'm saying is, he probably knows as much about Gould and the Goldberg Variations as anyone else would learn by reading the New York Times. Also never forget that the name of this blog is Marginal Revolution. Tyler only needs to commit the tiniest fraction of time and effort to extract the majority of influence and intellectual power. He is leveraging our tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt, by saying superficial things and forcing us to assume there's an iceberg beneath the tip. He has shown time and again a very deep knowledge of economics, and on economic subjects I would trust him almost implicitly. But on cultural matters I think he's playing the odds and making you blink. I apologize if this comment seems harsh, but my diplomatic neurons have not yet begun this morning to fire.
Posted by: Henrik Mintis at Aug 31, 2007 9:07:56 AM
De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at Aug 31, 2007 12:26:47 PM
De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at Aug 31, 2007 12:27:18 PM
Isn't Gould 1 somewhat mechanical/gimmicky? Gould 2 is better, but still lacks feeling. Perahia is on par with Gould 2. I am surprised that none of you mentioned the live Barenboim recording of the Goldberg. Nearest thing to perfection. He makes even the silences between notes sing. I also like the Sitkoveksy string transcription (2nd version). Its so exuberant!
David
Posted by: David Ong at Aug 31, 2007 12:59:07 PM
Dear Henrik Mintis:
Thanks. That explains a lot. It seems kind of adolescent to try to impose your tastes on other people rather than to explain why you like one thing more than another.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Aug 31, 2007 3:51:45 PM
Steve - It's all just fun. Sit back and enjoy Tyler's wit. Just don't jump off any bridges even if he tells you to. (Unless of course he has a very good economic reason for it....)
David - I own the Barenboim but haven't listened to it in years. Thanks for reminding me. Maybe I'll try it again.
But I can't stand listening to the entire work in one sitting. Variations in general drive me nuts after the third one (assuming I haven't already screamed and changed the channel as soon as the radio host said the word "variations on a theme..."). As much as I love Baroque polyphony, when it comes to variations I much prefer a symphonic movement where small, subtle variations wind their way through.
But you have to admit that Gould 2 has some real great moments. Perahia strays too far from my concept of "baroque" for me. I also don't think there's a single Brandenburg set out thre with the "best" version of every variation. For example I don't like its variation number 1, but Gould 2 contains in my opinion the definitive versions of many of the others. One of these days I should try to pick my favorite version of each variation and make a compliation. I might even enjoy listening to the whole thing in one sitting that way.
Posted by: Henrik Mintis at Aug 31, 2007 10:47:40 PM
I have a bit of an obsession with the Goldbergs. I've been working on playing them for while (even though I am not a particularly good pianist), and am yet constantly surprised by them.
As it happens, I love the Schiff recording. The Aria grabs you, and the first variation really grabs you--the sharpness of the playing and the subtle differences when he does the repeats are breathtaking to me.
I will give Dinnerstein some more chances, but it is not working for me.
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Posted by: BOb at Dec 5, 2007 9:07:09 PM
For me, Perahia has the best combination of feeling and technique in a post-Gould world. Gould opened up the whole realm of possibility, but all told I prefer Perahia -- listen to the subtle freshness with which each repeat is just slightly different. Honorable mention to Charles Rosen's recording. For harpsichord, I was brought up on Kirkpatrick's, so have a special fondness for it -- I can't judge it objectively. Dinnerstein is fascinating, but ultimately doesn't work for me -- a little too smooth in some places, a little lacking in subtlety elsewhere. But perhaps good as an introduction, especially for people who don't usually listen to Bach keyboard music.
But whatever the performance, let's remember: the true magician here was Bach. If I had to take only one CD to a desert island, it would be BWV 988 -- any of the above recordings (though I suspect Perahia's would wear best).
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