RE: GG: from my report

["R Johansen" <rjohanse@mail.tds.net>]

Hi all,

I find it very peculiar that a man who coupled the Goldbergs (performed on
the piano) with the 14 canons on the Goldberg theme performed on a
_synthesizer_ can muster the courage to criticize anyone for
"overestimat[ing] Bach's 'indifference about instruments'". Mr. Takahashi's
recording was made in 1976, which was well before any decent-sounding
synthesizer, and his synth work wasn't quite W. Carlos standard... It is
awful! I occasionally listen to the recording for the same reason I still
now and then dust off William Shatner's 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and Florence
Foster Jenkins' rendition (rending? ;-) ) of the Queen of the Night Aria.
English speakers are apparently too innocent, polite or dishonest to have a
word like "Schadenfreude", but Germans (and we Scandinavians) seem to have
a very real need for it ;-) It means something like "glee or merriment over
other people's misfortune". I am itching to see posterity's judgment of the
14 canons once this unfortunate fad has passed.

Sarcasm and Schadenfreude aside: Thank you for sharing this review,
Junichi! It got the old adrenaline flowing again, and it feels good! --And
by all means, Junichi, include the review! The opininon of someone who has
undertaken to play and record the Goldbergs must have some validity and
deserves to be heard.


Roy