Bach: Goldberg Variations / Italian Concerto / Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue

Wanda Landowska made this first recorded version of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1933. While she preferred her 1945 remake for RCA, this first attempt is tighter and less italicized in expression. The colorful registral shifts on her custom-made Pleyel harpsichord might have little to do with modern-day Baroque scholarship; but who cares? What rhythm this woman had--to say nothing of her remarkably independent fingers and ability to spin out long lines as if they were being sung, instead of plucked. Landowska takes some, but not all, repeats, and reiterates the first eight bars of Nos. 5, 7, and 18. The Italian Concerto's outer movements might sound a tad upholstered via Landowska's gilded instrument, but the eloquent, slow movement takes your breath away. Few have touched Landowska's proudly rhetorical traversal of the Chromatic Fantasy, with each whirlwind run and heart-stopping pause emerging as if it were being improvised on the spot. Compared to their previous transfer, EMI's newest remasterings beef up the bottom end of an admittedly limited dynamic spectrum, and add bloom to the treble. These timeless performances belong in every serious classical collection. --Jed Distler