Johann Sebastian Bach Ralph Kirkpatrick - Goldberg Variationen

(a childish PS): besides the contents, I love in this Gallery the way every lp "enters". It is the way I used to "inspect" (the Spanish word is "fisgar") the records when I visited someone, even before "being allowed"! As a child, I called the empty final surface of the disc "barba" (beard).

Excuse me if this is not the "correct" place for this question! Long time ago I read Kirkpatrick's book on the Wohltemperiertes Klavier, and there he mentioned some commentaries or "descriptions" he wrote for each pair, being included on his lps. booklet. I never saw the records, so I am curious about those texts. Would you know where I could find them? Thanks a lot!

Es la que conocemos.

Kirpatricks Spiel ist wunderbar und belebt die Seele !!! Tepper Michael.

This is arguably Bach in his finest hour. He has taken a simple but beautiful and tender aria, one that appeals to the senses of the sophisticated and unsophisticated alike, and brought to bear all his compositional skill and resourcefulness, the likes of which the world may never again see manifest in one man, to create this wondrous weave of variations that unfold in patterns of proportioned symmetry like a Renaissance classical garden. The music — nearly all of it — is stunningly beautiful. For many modern listeners, this is not always the case with J.S. Bach. There are times, it seems, he overworks clanky melodic motifs and punishes the listener with turgid counterpoint. Such unpleasantries may be due partly to the performer, the instrument(s), and the manner of recording, but it suffices to say that there are Bach works which may be impressive in some respects, but are more noisy than beautiful. And perhaps this is normal and healthy because Bach almost certainly didn’t have the luxury to second guess himself. He simply finished what he started, and moved on to the next project. I don’t think it ever occurred to him that his compositions would be held in such high regard several hundred years after his death.

Bach was nothing if not industrious and disciplined, and his output of work was superhuman. And amidst this library of material penned by him, there emerge some gems of extraordinary and timeless beauty. And, certainly Goldberg Variationen, BWV 988 is one of these. And as rarefied precious stones must be cut and set with the utmost care and artistry, so too does a rarefied composition of music require the utmost care and artistry in its performance. Trying hard is not good enough. You must succeed in rendering these musical ideas on paper into sound that does justice to what the composer heard in his mind.

With Ralph Kirkpatrick we have just the stonecutter we need to render what Bach wrote on paper into a historically informed performance that sparkles with 18th century verve and panache. I neither need nor desire to hear any other recording of Goldberg. As a preeminent musicologist and scholar, Kirkpatrick’s playing of Bach’s keyboard works are guided by his thorough knowledge of high Baroque style. And his playing of the Harpsichord is not a mere afterthought of his scholarship. He is a master performer of the Harpsichord and Clavichord. This Archive Production recording is unequivocally the Gold standard for performance of this timeless masterpiece which Bach composed at the height of his power.

PRACHTVOLL !!! Tepper Michael.

I would like to see DG put all of this "History of Music Division" project on CD or download!

absolument sublime cet interprète et le jeu de luth du clavecin est superbe également
absolutely sublime this performer and the lute playing of the harpsichord is superb as well

Kirkpatrick's recordings of Bach's works on a Neupert harpsichord have their proper beauty, and, if one can say, authenticity. Many thanks to make available his remarkable version of the Goldberg. I hope you will be able to publish also his LP which have not been published in CD, including his extraordinary Bach's toccatas.

モダンだからしかたがないが、演奏もランドフスカに毛が生えた程度ですな。過去の記念でしょう。チェンバロの音ではない。最近、フランスの新鋭クラヴサン奏者のジャン・ロンドーの素晴らしい演奏が、youtubeにアップされてます。もう見ましたか？下です。隔世の感がありますな。ピエール・アンタイのゴードベルクもいい。
https://youtu.be/1AtOPiG5jyk

This is a beautiful performance. I have to say for me, as far as recordings of this work on the harpsichord, my favorite is Karl Richter, followed by Trevor Pinnock.

Pitch is sharp.

Thanks for posting the accompanying liner notes.

For years I thought his first name was “Legendary” because he was always referred to as Legendary Ralph Kirkpatrick- with good reason!

DG still has this label today, although today it's ARCHIV and not ARCHIVE, which I find interesting.

Thank you very much for make this marvelous rendition public!

I think the making of this recording by Kirkpatrick and Archive Productions was a brave and committed enterprise. Given Gould’s effort some three years earlier which was such a sensation, Archive probably had no allusions of ever being able to match the wide distribution of Gould’s recording, but went ahead with their mission in making a connoisseurs record. In good timing too, since Gould popularized the piece.

*_Ralph Kirkpatrick wrote for this recording 1/2_*
The "Goldberg" Variations were first published in
1742 by Balthasar Schmid in Nürnberg under the
modest title: "Keyboard-practice, consisting of an
Aria with different variations for the harpsichord
with two manuals. Prepared for the enjoyment of
music-lovers by Johann Sebastian Bach, Polish
royal and Saxon electoral court-composer, director
and choir-master in Leipzig." The Aria appears
as a Sarabande in Anna Magdalena Bach's notebook
of the year 1725.
About the composition of these variations, Forkel
tells the following story, which, for all its doubtful
character, has permanently attached to them the
name of Bach's pupil, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.
"For this model, upon which all sets of variations
should be formed (although for comprehensible
reasons not a single set has yet been thus made),
we have to thank the instigation of the former
Russian ambassador to the electoral court of
Saxony, Count Keyserlingk, who often stopped in
Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned
Goldberg, in order to have him given
musical instruction by Bach. The Count was
often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times,
Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend
the night in an antechamber, so as to play for
him during his insomnia. Once the Count
mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like
to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which
should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively
character that he might be a little cheered up
by them in his sleepless nights. Bach tought
himself best able to fulfil this wish by means
of variations, the writing of which he had until
then considered an ungrateful task on account
of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation.
Thereafter the Count always called them his
variations. He never was tired of them, and for a
long time during sleepless nights he meant: 'Dear
Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' Bach
was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his
works as for this. The Count presented him with
a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d'or. Nevertheless,
even had the gift been a thousand times
larger, their artistic value would not yet have
been paid for."
Like an enormous passacaglia, the variations
reiterate the harmonic implications of the same
bass in thirty different forms. This fundamental
bass is never staded entirely in its most elemental
form not even in the Aria. But on this harmonic
skeleton and around it are constructed the variations,
each highly organized and composed of
independent thematic material. These follow one
another in a symmetrical grouping like the beads
of a rosary.

The form of the variations as a whole may lie
shown by comparison, as before, to that of a
rosary, or perhaps better explained by an architect)
lral analogy. Framed as if between two terminal
pylons, one formed by the Aria and the
first two ' variations, the other by the two penultimate
'variations and the Quodlibet, the variations
are grouped like the members of an
elaborate colonnade. The groups - are composed
of a canon and an elaborate two-manual arabesque,
enclosing in each case another variation of independent
character. Following upon the pylon-like
group which terminates this rhythmic procession,
the Aria repeated closes the great circle.

*_Ralph Kirkpatrick wrote for this recording 2/2_*
There are nine canons, at intervals successively
from the unison to the ninth, those at the fourth
and fifth in contrary motion, that at the ninth
without any independent third voice, such as
accompanies the others. Among the variable forms
are to be found a fughetta, a French overture,
florid slow movements, etc.



The Quodlibet mixes together the tunes of two
folk-songs:
. "Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gewest.
Ruck her, ruck her, ruck her."
and:
"Kraut und Ruben haben mich vertrieben,
hatt' mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht,
·so war' ich langer blieben.·

These might be translated thus:
"I've not been with you for so long,
Come closer, closer, closer."
and:
"Bee ts and spinach drove me far away.
Had my mother cooked some meat,
then I'd have stayed much longer.'


The following passage from the preface to my
edition of the Goldberg Variations, published by
G. Schirmer, New York, represents a kind of
writing which I feel should not ordinarily be indulged.
It was written nearly twenty-five years
before the . making of the present recording. Yet
in the intervening time, despite modifications in
the interpretation of a few variations, my sentiments
have not fundamentally changed.
"However much it is an act of impudence thus to
discuss something which is far too profound and
complex to be grasped in words, it seems necessary
to confess some of the feelings which
inevitably come with the playing of this music,
The Aria seems to foreshadow the spirit of the
whole work through the tenderness and calm with
which thp. solemnity of the fundamental bass is
clothed at its initial appearance.

The first variation stands like a festive gateway
leading to the inner world exposed in the following
three variations. These, like so many of the
canons and the Aria, have an unearthly pure
sweetness and a lyricism in every phrase that
makes one long to dissolve one's fingers, the
instrument, and one's whole self into three or
four singing voices. For a moment this quiet
lyricism is interrupted by the shining smooth
swiftness of the first arabesque variation (5). Then
comes a second canon of an almost nostalgic tenderness;
then a faraway scherzo (7) of the utmost lightness
and delicacy. The following arabesque and
canon return to a lyricism which is interrupted
by the brusque roughness of the Fughetta (10).
This is followed by the delicate network of the
third arabesque and the sunny canon at the fourth.
Then comes a flute aria (13) of a breath-taking
quiet pure joy. The humour of the fourth arabesque
makes even more striking the appearance
of the dark tragic canon at the fifth which ends
the first half of the variations,
The second half opens with a majestic French
Overture (16), followed by one of the lightest
of the arabesque variations. In the sixth canon
and the lute-variation (19) we return to a lyric
sweetness like that of the beginning, even more
peaceful. Another scherzo arabesque contrasts
with the sombre seventh canon, which in turn
joins on to the alla breve variation (22). This, for all
its quicker tempo, transforms the chromatic pathos
of the canon into that kind of serene chastened
joy which follows pain. In the seventh arabesque
we burst forth in the most unrestrained exuberant
joy, which is tranquillized in the gentle rocking
of the canon at the octave. Again we are interrupted
to be carried to even greater tragic heights
on the waves of a quiet yet irresistibly passionate
aria. From the eighth arabesque (26) on, the variations
mount through a sprightly canon, glittering
trills (28), and waltz-like bravura (29) to the final
jubilant climax in the Quodlibet (30), upon which
the repetition of the Aria falls like a benediction.
But for all their lyricism and tragic passion and
exuberance, the Aria and the Variations seem of
a divine substance entirely refined and purified
.of anything personal or ignoble, so that in plaYing
them on seems only the unworthy mouthpiece of
a higher voice.
But how Bach himself in pious humility would
ridicule these high-sounding words of ours with
a wry face and with god-like laughter:
'Kraut und Ruben .. : " Ralph Kirkpatrick



I] Uber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke,
IX (1802).

A Master. Thank you dear David.

Marvelous sound - incredible effects. I wonder if Landowska herself heard this recording, and if she knew Kirkpatrick and influenced/was influenced by his approach. His Scarlatti is also gorgeous. Grazie, David. <3

Thank you David for the sublime masterwork of Johann Sebastian Bach splendidly performed by Kirkpatrick. The rendition of Edith Picht-Axenfeld (one of your jewel uploads) has still a special place on my computer.

Wunderschöne und detaillierte Interpretation dieser perfekt komponierten Variationen in verschiedenen Tempi mit glänzendem doch zugleich anmutigem Klang des technisch perfekten Cembalos und mit künstlerisch kontrollierter Dynamik. Wundervoll vom Anfang bis zum Ende!