| J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations | ||||
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| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Recorded | January 10–12, 1989 | |||
| Studio | Yatsugatake Kohgen Ongakudoh, Japan | |||
| Genre | Classical | |||
| Length | 61:19 | |||
| Label | ECM | |||
| Producer | Manfred Eicher | |||
| Keith Jarrett chronology | ||||
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J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations is an album by Keith Jarrett performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations on harpsichord which was released on the ECM label in 1989. [1]
The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 3 stars noting "Keith Jarrett is up against an imposing legacy as he tackles what has become the most famous set of variations in Western music... He's not in any hurry, not tempted to showboat or flaunt his considerable technique -- and in no way does this jazz pianist try to make the variations swing a la Jacques Loussier. The added ornamentation seems to be random and so are his observance of the repeats; he only does so in ten of the variations. As a result, we are left with a technically adept, sometimes aimless, intelligently conceived, ultimately not very moving or exhilarating rendition of the music -- a confirmation of Jarrett's keyboard prowess for his fans, but not much in the way of competition for the brass ring among Goldbergs". [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [2] |
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work.
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty.
The Art of Fugue, or The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, The Art of Fugue is the culmination of Bach's experimentation with monothematic instrumental works.
Gustav Maria Leonhardt was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments.
Clavier-Übung, in more modern spelling Klavierübung, is German for "keyboard exercise". In the late 17th and early 18th centuries this was a common title for keyboard music collections: first adopted by Johann Kuhnau in 1689, the term later became mostly associated with Johann Sebastian Bach's four Clavier-Übung publications.
This is a list of commercial or professional recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, organized chronologically. The list is sortable by clicking on the small arrows at the top of each column.
Christophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18th centuries and is the founder of the French music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach is a 1968 film by the French filmmaking duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. It was their first full-length feature film, and reportedly took a decade to finance. The film stars renowned harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt as Johann Sebastian Bach and Christiane Lang as Anna Magdalena Bach. The orchestral music was performed by Concentus Musicus and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. It is the first of several Straub-Huillet films to be based on works of classical music. The film was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival.
Paris Concert is a live solo piano album by American pianist Keith Jarrett, recorded on October 17, 1988 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and released by ECM Records in April 1990.
Vienna Concert is a live solo piano album by American pianist Keith Jarrett recorded on July 13, 1991, at the Vienna Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria, and released by ECM label in 1992. It has a forty-two-minute arch-like opening movement that exhibits a much greater debt to classical music than Jarrett's earlier improvised concerts.
Personal Mountains is a live album by American pianist Keith Jarrett's 'European Quartet' recorded in 1979 and released by ECM Records 10 years later, in 1989. The recording documents the band featuring Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen), in different live performances in Tokyo in April 1979.
Staircase is the fourth solo piano album released on ECM by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. It features Jarrett performing four solo piano "suites" recorded in the studio in May 1976.
Dark Intervals is a live solo piano album by American pianist Keith Jarrett recorded on April 11, 1987, at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and released on the ECM label in 1988.
For a change in Jarrett's solo career on stage, it contains eight short pieces, each with a title and accompanied by applause. Shaping the whole performance as a formal concert, it does not have the pianist signature free-form and long impromptus feel of previous recordings of its kind and it is the first time that the tunes are not tagged with the venue's name and the date of the concert.
The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769, are a set of five variations in canon for organ with two manuals and pedals by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Christmas hymn by Martin Luther of the same name. The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in Leipzig in 1747. The original printed edition of 1747, in which only one line of the canon was marked in the first three variations, was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. Another version BWV 769a appears in the later autograph manuscript P 271, which also contains the six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530 and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes BWV 651–668. In this later version Bach modified the order of the variations, moving the fifth variation into a central position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with some minor revisions to the score.
These [variations] are full of passionate vitality and poetical feeling. The heavenly hosts soar up and down, their lovely song sounding out over the cradle of the Infant Christ, while the multitude of the redeemed "join the sweet song with joyful hearts." But the experiences of a fruitful life of sixty years have interwoven themselves with the emotions which possessed him in earlier years ... The work has an element of solemn thankfulness, like the gaze of an old man who watches his grandchildren standing round their Christmas tree, and is reminded of his own childhood.
The brilliant scale passages not only represent the ascending and descending angels, but sound joyous peals from many belfries ringing in the Saviour's birth.
Still Live is a double-CD live album by American pianist Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio" featuring bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. It was recorded on July 13, 1986, at Philharmonic Hall in Munich, Germany. This concert was organized and co-produced by Loft and ECM and was part of the "Klaviersommer 1986". It was released by ECM Records in 1988.
Concerts is a triple solo piano album by Keith Jarrett recorded in concert on May 28, 1981 at the Festspielhaus in Bregenz, Austria and on June 2, 1981 at the Herkulessaal in Munich, West Germany. It was originally released in September 1982 by ECM Records as a 3-LP set and also as a single LP including only the Bregenz performance. It was not until 2013 that, for the first time, ECM released a full 3-CD reissue containing both concerts.
Arbour Zena is an orchestral work composed by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Charlie Haden and members of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mladen Gutesha which was recorded in October 1975 and released by ECM in 1976.
The Open Goldberg Variations is a non-profit project that created a high quality studio recording and typeset score of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, and placed them directly into the public domain. By releasing an entirely free version of the classical masterpiece, the project aims to change a common problem: in theory, classical music is a common property due to advanced age, yet it is hard to find quality recordings of it online due to copyrighted restrictions on the performances. Open Goldberg Variations cemented a free, quality version into the public domain, making the music available for everyone and everything, including schools, universities, musicians, private persons and even commercial productions.
The Goldberg Variations is a double CD album by pianist Uri Caine's Ensemble performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations recorded in remembrance of 250th anniversary of his death and released on the Winter & Winter label.