Mar 2 (Var 5)

Not going to lie - I dashed this one off pretty quickly. But! I'm all packed and ready to go. I don't know if I'll be able to post tomorrow; I'm traveling from 7am until 7pm and I may not find a piano. I'll try though!

Mar 1 (Var 5)

Today's recording is really a tale of two halves. I played the second half straight through at 80 bpm today, totally accidentally. That represents a really tough target for me - on the second half. For the first half, that's really slow, so slow that my mind starts to drift and *that* causes me to make mistakes. I can comfortably play the first half at 100 and uncomfortably a couple of notches above that. So you'll hear me pushing the tempo pretty strongly in the first half here, and then being blindsided by how much faster the second half feels, hence a mistake and restart. What it all means is that I need more work to bring the second half up to the level of the first, but it's a result of the fact that the second half is significantly harder. When I was first sightreading through it, I literally could not even figure out what to do at the end. So while this recording shows some real issues, it also represents real progress!

Feb 28 (Var 5)

Twice through in practice with no mistakes. And this is the best I could do after I hit record. 

Feb 27 (Var 3)

Hi! Let's have some fun with album covers! I just did a Google Image search for "Goldberg Variations Album" and let's take a look.

This is the one that gave me the idea for this post. I saw it while looking for my man Vlad (Feltsman) and at first I was like "what the heck is that". But it's actually a really brilliant choice! See how the leaves are all divided into two distinct halves? So are the Goldbergs. See how the leaf in the front is further split into quarters, and then eighths, and so on? So are the Goldbergs. These leaves have fractal properties, and so does the music. Somebody put some thought into this album cover, and I like that. My man Vlad probably doesn't:

Vlad wants to know which side is his good side. (It's his right side, obvs). I can't be too critical though; look at that hair! This image is the image in my mind for the Goldberg Variations, for better or for worse. But it could have been:

He is... semi undressed and making a very suggestive face. And he chose this photo for the album. Glenn, you scamp. And he titled the album! It's two recordings of the variations, nothing more, but he felt like he had license to add his own title to it - to make it about him. From what I've read, that's mostly how critics responded to the recordings themselves, too. He did it his own way, and classical music aficionados (especially Bach fans) care about fidelity. But Mr. Gould is easily the most famous of the Goldberg performers, at least in the US. More than half of the first 10 google results were of him:

And they all feature him prominently. 

I prefer the artistic album covers; I think this one is particularly nice:

OK, it's a little dreary maybe, but I would hang that on my wall! Not in my bedroom, maybe. Or:

I'm not a fan of that one, but at least it's not a sweaty Glenn Gould!

How about these ladies:

They look fun! And their recorder quintet is named the Seldom Sene! I find this hilarious, mostly because there's a bluegrass band called the Seldom Scene, and 1) that pun is way better, and 2) they did it first. But it's a recorder quintet, which is amazing, and look at that big honkin' one in the middle (the recorder, not the lady). I guess that must be a contrabass recorder, which I've never seen before but now I kind of want one.

That guy thinks he's fun.

That guy thinks he's hot shit.

This guy is screaming authenticity, with a page from the original manuscript above his name. I bet it's a subpar recording, and I have no good reason to think that.

And here's the ultimate minimalist album cover. This one is notable to me mostly for who the artist is -- Keith Jarrett, to me, is that guy who moans while he plays freeform jazz. But apparently he's also the guy who moans while playing extremely rigid harpsichord music. Who knew!

OK, that concludes our brief tour through Goldberg Variations album covers. There are a lot more out there, but they're mostly Glenn Gould.

Feb 26 (Var 5)

Time for another video post! Make sure you watch until the end...

Feb 25 (Var 5)

Today I played the second half all the way through. Drilled the heck out of the part that climbs from the bass to the treble - drilled, drilled, drilled. I even bored myself!