Nicholas Angelich - J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (2011)

"Bach purifies me: he offers me a new view on life, never mind what he brings in purely pianistic terms," said U.S.-born and Paris-trained pianist Nicholas Angelich. None of this makes a great deal of sense; Bach of course brought nothing in purely pianistic terms, and purification isn't something his patrons and audiences would have much associated with his secular keyboard music. What you're getting here is old-school Romantic Bach, with pedals, crescendos, a whole palette of articulation and attack, and in general an episodic freedom in its approach to the notes on the page. If that's what you're after, Angelich may fill the bill. His recording clocks in at 79 minutes, 58 seconds, just two seconds shy of the usual maximum for a single CD. This is longer than most recordings (although there are a few that spill over onto a second disc), but his variations aren't especially slow for the most part; the extra time comes mostly in the bafflingly deliberate treatment of the opening aria, its return at the end, and several of the slow variations. Those slow variations are given very well-sculpted readings, and in general Angelich has the technical chops and the sheer variety to hold your interest over long stretches of music. The deeper architecture of this massive set of variations, on which so many pianists focus, are little in evidence, and Angelich applies so many twists and turns to the earlier variations that the sense of approaching a climax in the profound final sections is diminished. But Angelich is certainly not boring or pedantic, and your mileage may vary. The pianist is very well served by Virgin Classics' engineers, who clearly capture the smallest details of his phrasing.