Tzimon Barto’s Goldberg Variations
Today, after a late-night conference call, I opened the Naxos Music Library and found its album of the week: the Goldberg Variations (F. Busoni edition) performed by the “muscle pianist,” Tzimon Barto. Apparently he is a pianist especially recommended by Naxos.
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (F. Busoni Edition) (Tzimon Barto)
Naxos-recommended pianist Tzimon Barto has released Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Barto captivated listeners with his unique worldview and artistry in Tchaikovsky and Brahms performances with Eschenbach, and he remains equally compelling here. The opening Aria is as slow as Glenn Gould’s 81 recording. It is not merely slow: the phrasing is extraordinarily unconventional. His sound becomes so soft that it seems about to disappear, making the listener instinctively hold their breath. His individuality also appears in his use of the Busoni edition rather than the standard version. Enjoy a Goldberg Variations that differs in every respect. (yasu)
The formal title of J.S. Bach’s so-called “Goldberg Variations” is “Aria with Diverse Variations for Harpsichord with 2 Manuals” (Clavier Ubung bestehend in einer ARIA mit verschiedenen Veraenderungen vors Clavicimbal mit 2 Manualen) (BWV 988), and it forms volume 4 of the 4-volume “Clavier-Übung.” Published in 1742, the work was long forgotten after the harpsichord era ended and the age of the piano began. Although Landowska’s performances on a modern harpsichord played a role, it is fair to say that the enormous success of Glenn Gould’s debut recording made the work widely known.
For that reason, I long believed that the Goldberg Variations meant Gould’s old and new recordings. The shock of hearing the new recording from the preceding year, immediately after Gould died in 82 on October, was especially powerful. I still vividly remember Mark Obama Ndesandjo1 arriving at our home in Nairobi clutching the LP, saying “Just listen,” putting it on, and both of us being electrified. The 1 hour passed in an instant.
Glenn Gould’s Final Performance: Goldberg Variations
That was not the only reason I revered Gould’s recordings. Mrs. Davis, who was both Mark’s teacher and my sister’s teacher, and one of the few direct pupils of Wilhelm Kempff, also praised them highly. Naturally, I was influenced as a high school student.
That belief was overturned only recently, after I heard Maria Tipo. Called the female Horowitz of Milan and admired by Argerich, Tipo gives a performance that seems to recreate choir and orchestra, whereas Gould recreated harpsichord performance on the piano. You can hear a church choir: tenor, bass, alto, and then soprano layered above them. It makes one think, “Ah, this must be what Bach wanted to do on the harpsichord.”
Maria Tipo is not well known in Japan, and perhaps not even in Europe, but I think she is an extraordinary pianist. This is evident from Argerich’s statement in an interview in 2000: “Maria Tipo. She is sensational. It is a pity she no longer plays the piano.”2
Maria Tipo is an Italian pianist whose mother studied with Alfredo Casella, himself a direct pupil of Busoni. Born in 1931, she won the Geneva International Music Competition at the age of 17. During her American tour of 1955, she recorded in only 4 hours a collection of 12 Scarlatti sonatas that Newsweek acclaimed as “the finest record of the year.” She fully earned the title “the female Horowitz of Naples.”3
Now, coming full circle, we return to Tzimon Barto’s Goldberg Variations. He uses the Busoni edition: an edition prepared by the great Italian pianist and composer in whose direct lineage Maria Tipo stands.
From the opening it is even slower than Gould, with “Romantic” rhythmic fluctuations absent from Gould. But what should one make of it? Perhaps it works once you become accustomed to it. Incidentally, when you hear Busoni himself play Bach, he does not vary the tempo that much. His Liszt is straightforward too. Romantic-era musicians generally play much more briskly and at faster tempos than we imagine today.
So I will close with one of the few recordings Busoni left: the sole piano-roll recording that Gunnar Johansen, Busoni’s grand-student who knew Busoni’s playing during his lifetime, said conveys Busoni.
Liszt’s “Feux follets,” performed by F. Busoni. He is good, isn’t he? Extremely straightforward and free of affectation, yet dynamic.
Footnotes
- at the time, we had no idea that his brother would become America’s first president of color… (laughs)
- Italian Radio 3, “An Interview with Martha Argerich” (2000/2/16) http://www.andrys.com/argitaly.html; she is interviewed together with her fellow student Abbado.
- Her hard-edged sound, affinity for Scarlatti, and technique said even to surpass Argerich probably recall Horowitz.
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