Re: GGs of today, GG's Haendel

[Marcos Maffei <mmaffei@mandic.com.br>]

Hello, gg's fans all over the world.

I've subscribed recently to this list and, as participating in these
weblists is also something new for me, I was trying to get acquainted to
what's discussed in it
(and some topics are rather, well, curious; sometimes - the wish lust
exchange, for instance - even managing to get curiouser and
curiouser...) to see where or how could I step in and introduce myself,
when suddenly the messages concerning GGs of today brought out two or
three things that I was just considering to try here. Namely:

Ivo Pogorelich:
First of all, concerning non-GG Bach played on the piano, his English
Suites 2 & 3 (BWV 807 & 808; DGG 415 480-2; 1986) were, and still are,
the most striking and even exciting Bach's keyboard music recording that
I've heard since... well, GG's. The sheer intensity of his playing, the
forward-driven momentum of the preludes, the deeply felt pace of the
sarabandes, and so on, makes it for me one of the best Bach piano
records ever. (along, naturally, with GG's two Goldbergs - my heart is
forever divided between both - his tocattas, most of his WTC, and the
recently released, and nothing less than breathtaking, fugues of Art of
Fugue on piano...). I've heard, and liked, many other pianists playing
Bach (Nikolayevna, Brendel, Schiff, S. Richter, C. Katsaris); none,
however, has such a stunning effect as this one by Pogorelich. 

And yes, I agree that to some extent he can be considered one of the
pianists working in the legacy of GG, by his daring approach to the
music, trying to make it really sound new, no matter the consequences...
(which, in some cases, can be quite weird, or even disastrous... but
that also happened with our hero: GG's Hammerklavier is, in all acounts,
a certified disaster)
But also in the sense that GG's so-called excentricity opened the way to
these, well, experiments (what else can be called, for instance,
Pogorelich's Brahms intermezzi op. 117 n.3 at 8'02" and op.118 n.2 at
8'49"? There's a real risk of the music falling apart, but it doesn't,
and the surprise is this: it works, at least for me, op. 118 better than
117; of course, I won't trade GG's wonderful renditions - at 5'19" and
5'47", respectively - for it, but anyway... Also, P's Haydn sonatas...
but I dare say that I much prefer his Scarlatti to Horowitz's...). 
Suffice to say that GG often felt obliged to provide in the liner notes
to his releases some sort of justification to his interpretative
choices, and you'll find none of it in Pogorelich's records (oh well, I
know that not all great musicians can also write as well - even if some
do, Brendel is a good example - and certainly none as floridly as our
hero...). Back then, it seems that some sort of guarded attitude was
needed, in anticipation of the predictable (and always promptly
delivered) outrage of the critics; and if things are much easier now, I
think that GG has a considerable share in opening these new paths.  
(Speaking of which, and as Bradley happened to have mentioned him,
Dimitry Sitkovetsky's transcription for strings of the Goldberg
Variations - Nonesuch 79341-2 - if not always wholy convincing, is a
very interesting record) 

GG's Haendel's suites
I wondered... is there anyone else, besides me, that really enjoys that
one?
When I bought it, I easily dismissed it in one careless hearing (not
surprisingly: it was around the same time that I bought the already
mentioned Art of Fugue and the Bach-C.P.E.-Scarlatti GG's records).
Then, one day, I picked it just to see what it sounded, after all. To my
surprise, I enjoyed it enormously, or to put it more to the point: had
lots of fun with it. Here's my opinion: GG couldn't quite manage to take
seriously Haendel's Suites (quite understandably: there is some beatiful
music in them, but, compared to Bach's keyboard contrapuntual and
emotional depths and altitudes...)
so he approached them ...as child's play. What else can explain his
rather arbitrary choices and changes of registration, for instance,
particularly in the set of variations of the Suite in D minor HWV 428?
Only the fervent ingenuousness of a whiz-kid at play... And, of course,
he seems to be mightily enjoying himself all along the suites, and all
this sheer joy is there for us to share... in other words, he has lots
of fun, and so do we. 
(The letter quoted in the booklet may serve as evidence of my "theory";
and, while I'm at it, what is a Wittmayer, this harpsichord "that many
pro-harpsychordists turn up their noses at"?) 
Well, I guess that all I said makes of this record not much more than a
trifle, even if a highly enjoyable one, but so what? Unless if you have
something against just having fun... (oh, you can always go back to much
more sublime music as in the Byrd-Gibbons-Sweelinck record, another of
my favorite GG's; and if you want Haendel played seriously, you can try
Sviatoslav Richter in the very fairly priced EMI doublefforte
series...)      

And finally,
Brahms' transcription for piano of the Chaconne d-moll aus der Partita
fur Violine solo BWV 1004.
I've recently came across it (in DGG 449 182-2; Anatol Ugorski playing
it, along with the sonatas and the Haendel Variations); until then, I
was completely unaware of the existence of this transcription. And then
I wondered: considering GG's fondness of both composers, how come he
never tried his (left- it's just for the left) hand at it?
I've consulted Friedrich's biography, and found nothing (instead, this
also very interesting question: "how could GG have overlooked Brahms's
Haendel Variations?" Indeed, how could he...?) 
Anyone there knows anything about this?

Oh, as for introductions: my name is Marcos, I'm a writer from São
Paulo, Brazil (sorry for any, or the many, eventual mistakes in my
English);
and I am really very curious to know if there is any other fellow
citizen of mine 
also inhabiting this very interesting virtual Gouldland...

Greetings,
Marcos