I’m a huge fan of this music, and it is refreshing to
come back to a recording of a fine sounding harpsichord, even
after some superb experiences with versions on piano and even
organ (see review).
The instrument used here is a fine modern harpsichord by Joel
Katzman of Amsterdam. It may be my imagination, but having
this music on a recently made instrument gives this recording
a freshly minted, ‘new’ feel. I would compare this
to the grass on a Dutch polder. Land that is only sixty or
seventy years old seems to have a brighter colour to the grass
than the more ancient turf further inland, and in the same
way this harpsichord is a long way from having its sound darkened
by a patina of time and usage.
Aapo Häkkinen’s performance of this great piece
is equally wide awake, and a breath of fresh Finnish air through
your loudspeakers. We have come across his name both as a conductor and
as a performer before,
and nothing in this recording of the Goldberg Variations will
be taking anything away from these positive responses to his
previous work. The booklet notes for this release are Wanda
Landowska’s fascinating 1933 essay on the Goldberg
Variations published in ‘Landowska on Music’ from
1964. All we miss is the player’s own feelings about
the piece, but the playing speaks for itself eloquently enough
not to need this in words. Häkkinen is not as extreme
as Landowska in reining back the tempi in some of the earlier
variations, but I have heard Variatio I played a little
faster than here. Häkkinen leads us in gently, refusing
to burst loose with fireworks at the first hurdle. He also
refuses to bombard us with extravagances of extra ornamentation,
and each variation holds its own tempo with just enough margin
of elasticity to allow the music to flow with generous expression,
while avoiding mannered over-interpretation.
Listening to this recording, I have been confronted with a
mixture of inner arguments and a variety of sensations. My
initial response was that, even with all the very fine playing,
I was missing something of an element of surprise. The problem
is, we have all become so used to Glenn Gould and others teasing
extremes of expression and drama out of their modern grand
pianos that it can seem a step backwards when evaluating a
harpsichord performance in which the tempi are, with some obvious
exceptions, fairly similar through the length of the piece.
In this way, one can easily hear Häkkinen as more ‘middle
of the road’ in terms of his Goldberg Variations,
but this would be shockingly unfair and negative when getting
down to the actual playing on this disc. Another feeling which
is even harder to pin down is that sense of narrative and traversal
which I always unconsciously experience with BWV 988.
Häkkinen arrives at a significant point in the Variatio
21, Canone alla Settima, which bursts forth with revelatory
expressiveness. It requires a little backtracking to decide
if we’ve merely been waiting for this point all along,
or if the previous variations have been building a subtle architecture
which arches towards this golden section climax. Maybe I’m
imbuing this, or the piece/performance as a whole, with too
much weight in this regard, but having found an anchor on which
to hang what I perceive to be Häkkinen’s structural
approach I felt I was approaching repeated hearings with a
different attitude.
What Häkkinen eschews in terms of overt musical messages
he seeks in the subtleties within the music. There are lovely
little touches everywhere. Some, like the little delay at the
beginning of the gentle shower of notes in Variatio 23,
might seem a trifle affected, but these aspects of the performance
fit with entire naturalness into Häkkinen’s approach
to Bach, and there are no jarring moments or variations where
I found myself asking why? Häkkinen’s touch
at the keyboard can create a fine sense of legato, the notes
overlapping just enough to give that impression of a smooth
line - not easily achieved on the harpsichord. There are nice
little lifts in the musical mini-sentences which ride that
undulating wave of notes in Variatio 26, but feel the
underlying pulse of the music and you’ll hear it is stable
as can be. The journey through that wealthy penultimate Quodlibet is
magnificent, and rounded off with a final Aria which
is more a closing of the circle, rather than a reflective pontification
on what has gone before.
One other positive aspect of this release is the recording.
This has been made in a church acoustic, but the resonance
only lends a mild sense of wider spaces beyond the environment
of the instrument. The harpsichord has been quite closely recorded,
but has a fine enough tone to cope with close scrutiny. There
is no mechanical noise, the warmth of the bass strings brings
a strong foundation to the counterpoint and harmonic movement,
and the mid and upper range have a brightness and clarity without
being jangly. The SACD effect enhances the depth of the sound
picture, providing the imagination with a tangible sense of
the size and shape of the instrument, and the thrumming vibration
of the strings in the air.
Competition is of course fierce in this field, though recordings
of this piece on harpsichord seem to have been less fashionable
of late. Both Richard Egarr and Kenneth Gilbert are strong
contenders on Harmonia Mundi, and I have lived happily with
Trevor Pinnock’s recording on Archiv for many years.
Every time I have come back to this recording however, I have
been given that warm feeling of welcoming music-making, and
a definite desire to hear the piece all the way through. If
you are currently looking for a marvellously played, state-of-the-art
recording of the Goldberg Variations then
do try to look beyond the ghastly mudbath of a photo on the
cover of this release and buy it without hesitation.
Dominy Clements
Aapo Häkkinen (harpsichord) 
[79:38] 
