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Editorial Reviews

The great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt recorded Bach's "Goldberg Variations" three times: in 1953 for Vanguard, in 1965 for Das Alte Werk, and in 1975 for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. All three are superlative -- the 1953 fast and racy, the 1965 poised and polished, and the 1975 smart and cerebral -- and any one of them would be a clear first choice if the other two didn't exist.

"Best" is a slippery word to apply to any performance of the "Goldberg Variations." They cover the entire aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual range contained within Bach, and so any recording is likely to succeed in some ways that others do not. But critical consensus has generally come down in favor of Leonhardt's 1965 recording, reissued here in 2007. This is because the 1965 steers the middle course between the daring virtuosity of the 1953 and the cool intellectuality of the 1975. Here, Leonhardt seems neither subjective nor objective, but a dispassionate observer of the music instead -- and of his own performance of the music. One gets the sense that Leonhardt is at once creating and re-creating the music as it flows through his fingers, and his performance has an inner security and serenity that his earlier and later performances cannot match. Das Alte Werk's stereo sound is crystalline in its purity and lucidity. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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