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Thursday, March 12, 2020

Johann Sebastian Bach - Goldberg Variations (Trio Zimmermann)


Information

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Performing version by Trio Zimmermann)

Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Christian Poltéra, cello

Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/orchestras-ensembles/trio-zimmermann/bach-goldberg-variations

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Review

If you play the first variation of the Goldbergs on strings it resembles the opening of the Third Brandenburg. Or perhaps it should at any rate, and does in most recordings of Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s arrangement, especially his own (such as the Orfeo album, 8/86, with Maisky on cello).

Trio Zimmermann think otherwise; they play each note detached, and with pure tone. Whatever the intent, the effect is of an anachronistic viol consort with the tools but not the inclination to join the dots. The bass line of Var 4 cries out for a rustic swing – which Maisky supplies, little by little, on his DG recording led by Julian Rachlin (4/07). I’m afraid I find the Zimmermanns rather po-faced and humourless by comparison, however immaculate their finish and airy their recording.

Where their version flourishes in a string-specific way is in the matter of ornamentation – not only the kind of keyboard-friendly semiquaver turns and trills of Var 5 but also delicious, slow French appoggiaturas (Var 3 and 7), grace notes that might be harder to tuck under the fingers on a harpsichord (Var 13), and the kind of exquisite slow suspensions that are written into the fabric of the ‘Black Pearl’, Var 25.

Indeed, both of these expressive high points receive hushed and meditative readings somewhat isolated from the gracefully turned dexterity on show elsewhere. The Couperin-esque shading of Var 26 works beautifully on its own terms, for example, and one can imagine the performance as a whole delighting a court audience at Versailles – but at the expense of Bach’s own, coarser strain of humour. Cabbages and turnips (Var 30)? Purple-sprouting broccoli, more like.

-- Peter Quantrill, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Jun/Bach_Goldberg_BIS2347.htm
https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/trio-zimmermann-goldberg-variations/9134.article
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/bach-goldberg-variations-trio-zimmermann/
https://www.allmusic.com/album/johann-sebastian-bach-goldberg-variations-mw0003274987

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Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

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In 2007 the violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann was able to realize his long-cherished dream to establish a string trio, the Trio Zimmermann, together with the viola player Antoine Tamestit and the cellist Christian Poltéra. All three musicians have their own distinguished solo careers, but they happily meet for one or two short touring periods per season. The trio performs in such musical centres as Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, London, Milan, Munich, Paris, Vienna and Zürich, as well as during the festivals in Salzburg and Edinburgh. The Trio Zimmermann records for BIS Records.
https://www.nymusartists.com/artist/trio-zimmermann/

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