Re: GG: Any other Goldberg recommendations?

[frank@clark.net]

I am very fond of Wilhelm Kempff's ethereal recording that he did late in
his active life. It was recorded in Hanover in 1969 July and issued on LP
as DGG 2530 723 and (in Japan) on POCG 9185-9204. It also came out on CD,
439 6722-2GGA. It is in the _Gramophone Catalog_ for 1995 but not _Schwann
Opus_ for the first issue of 1996.

Kempff omits most of the grace notes, even though they are in the Urtext.
It took me a good many hearings to get used to these omissions, but now I
think I understand, intuitively, how these omissions contribute to the
whole attitude of Kempff's approach to the music. At first, I thought that
he was just too old to play the grace notes properly, but other recordings
from that same period revealed that that was not the case at all. (There
are occasions where Kempff could not negotiate some esp. difficult
passages--I'm thinking of some parts of the first movement of Sonata No
32--which Gould could bring off in a very fast tempo (I recorded this at 7
1/2"/sec. on an open reel recorder and played it back at 3 3/4 ips.
Everything perfect.). So Kempff has to flub it even on his mono recording
from 1951 (he was born in 1895). But it's wonderful to hear the artistry
that he invested to slide over his weakness!

I'd say the Kempff Goldberg is the recording I most enjoy listening to,
after the various Goulds. Kempff, along with Schnabel and Backhaus, rates
just below Gould in my estimation.

Try to get a copy and give it many hearings.

Frank