Mining classical music gold.

So let's talk Bach!  Best recording of the Goldberg Variations:

Glenn Gould

Murray Perahia

Andras Schiff

Igor Levit

Beatrice Rana

Angela Hewitt

Wilhelm Kempff

Danill Trifonov

Vladimir Felstman...In Goldberg...

My favorite...

The pulse is irresistible...Pure joy...No concentrated serious  demonstration only a riveting pulse like in an improvisation...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2gfhLak-g&list=PLr0MsaDpKsY-biupbCUhZf55V3rNEzU_v

https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV988-Feltsman.htm

He is also my prefered interpreter of the Well tempered Klavier with a poetical touch contrasting with the perfect cold  mastery of Schiff my second choice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iRFYxJK_Lw&list=PLr0MsaDpKsY9F9fHi8enCPQwv7beVX9iy

But with Bach i can appreciate all interpreters choice, and collected them...

I did not count anymore...

The thoughts above made me listen to the C Major Prelude, of Book 1.

Comparing (e.g.) Gould and Hewitt - they are almost playing different works.

See these YouTube links.

Gould vs Hewitt

My personal taste now leans towards Hewitt's lyricism. 

A few years ago I had a discussion with a Jazz enthusiast friend who maintained that Classical musicians were just technicians - all they had to do was play the notes whereas Jazz players were creating music.

I played him a selection of pianists playing the C Major Prelude BWV 846.

Should we now start a discussion of the Cello Suites?  Qobuz has about 16 recordings, including several by Casals, through to Weilerstein.  Presto has about 200 (I lost count!) versions - I guess about 3 or 4 months to work through those if I don't listen to anything else.  There is also a recording by Nathaniel Rosen, on a John Marks CD.

It is as true as the affirmation that many jazz musicians throw showmanship playing more than creative interpretation of music pieces...

There is great musicians in jazz as in classical and not so great one too ...

Myself i like the musicians craftmanship  more than the genres itself...i listen as much jazz musicians (European & Asian jazz not just US jazz) than classical one... ( and Persian and Indian musicians too )

A few years ago I had a discussion with a Jazz enthusiast friend who maintained that Classical musicians were just technicians - all they had to do was play the notes whereas Jazz players were creating music.

For Bach cello i can appreciate many others like Starker or Casals,but my favorite is Fournier for 55 years... Heartfelt and controlled...

Should we now start a discussion of the Cello Suites?  Qobuz has about 16 recordings, including several by Casals, through to Weilerstein.  Presto has about 200 (I lost count!) versions - I guess about 3 or 4 months to work through those if I don’t listen to anything else.  There is also a recording by Nathaniel Rosen, on a John Marks CD.

I have the Fournier disks, owned for a similar time.  My choice is between the Starker SR3-9016 and the Archiv Fournier.

The Mercury disks were selling for $500+ 30 years ago, now they fetch about $125.  I did buy a set of the Golden Import as a backup.