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Sony Masterworks

Bach: The Goldberg Variations for Guitar / Kurt Rodarmer

$17.99

Details

Composer
BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN
Artist
Kurt, Rodarmer
Format
CD
Label
Sony Masterworks
Released
Aug 06, 2010
Catalog #
SONY60257
UPC
074646025727

About

It's not just technical achievements that Rodarmer has to offer; he also makes a beautiful sound, at once lustrous and warm, and has an impressive sense of style.

Turning to what Sony bills as a world premiere transcription of the Goldberg Variations for guitar, I was incredulous. Maybe the Goldbergs could be cogently presented, I thought, on the lute, which is an instrument well suited to polyphonic writing, but how could its complex textures be clearly rendered on the essentially harmony-oriented guitar?

Fortunately, it turns out that Kurt Rodarmer (about whom Sony vouchsafes no biographical information) agrees with me. Combining the roles of arranger, performer, and producer, he has made his version for multiple guitars, anything from two to four of them, "recording each part separately and later mixing them down." Naturally there is a certain loss where the virtuoso conquest of technical demands is concerned, but this, as many may feel and as Glenn Gould used to argue passionately, is by no means necessarily a bad thing.

In any case, Rodarmer's dazzling finger skills still make a tremendous impression, especially by virtue of the combination of speed, steadiness, and clarity with which he dispatches such variations as No. 23, with its rapid parallel thirds and whirlwind cadential scales. In variations like Nos. 6, 21, and 24 Bach's canonic writing emerges with unusual lucidity. Nor are such technical achievements all Rodarmer has to offer. He makes a beautiful sound, at once lustrous and warm, that is vividly captured by the very clear sound. He realizes textures like those of the two-manual Variation 20 with a sure feeling for their drama. And he has an impressive sense of style, which is given expression by some elegant long grace notes in the Aria itself and in the 9/8 meter of Variation 24, and also by some well-conceived changes of articulation in the repeats.

These latter, by the way, are omitted in the Aria but included in the variations, with only a few exceptions. The decision to omit the first of the two repeats in Variation 16 but to include the second one seems perverse, since this variation is designed in the form of a French overture, with stately introduction and dancelike fast section, and that is a genre where the tradition of repeating the introduction was surely invariable in Bach's time.

Aside from one or two such minutiae, and from a slightly mechanical feeling in the treatment of the minor-mode Variation 25 (where, perhaps symptomatically, both repeats are ignored), I found both the conception of Rodarmer's arrangement—a refreshing blend of artistic respect with absence of pomposity—highly persuasive. Like Bach on the accordion, I wouldn't want to hear Goldberg on the guitar every time. But I am glad to have both in my collection to indulge in as an occasional and artistically worthwhile treat.

-- Bernard Jacobson, FANFARE [5/1998]

Tracklist 32 tracks

  1. 1 Aria 02:50
    Track
    1
    Title
    Aria
    Duration
    02:50
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  2. 2 Variatio 1. a 1 Clav. 02:13
    Track
    2
    Title
    Variatio 1. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  3. 3 Variatio 2. a 1 Clav. 01:30
    Track
    3
    Title
    Variatio 2. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  4. 4 Variatio 3. Canone all'Unisuono a 1 Clav. 02:40
    Track
    4
    Title
    Variatio 3. Canone all'Unisuono a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:40
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  5. 5 Variatio 4. a 1 Clav. 01:02
    Track
    5
    Title
    Variatio 4. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:02
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  6. 6 Variatio 5. a 1 o vero 2 Clav. 01:20
    Track
    6
    Title
    Variatio 5. a 1 o vero 2 Clav.
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  7. 7 Variatio 6. Canone alla Seconda. a 1 Clav. 00:58
    Track
    7
    Title
    Variatio 6. Canone alla Seconda. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    00:58
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  8. 8 Variatio 7. a 1 o vero 2 Clav. 02:45
    Track
    8
    Title
    Variatio 7. a 1 o vero 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:45
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  9. 9 Variatio 8. a 2 Clav. 01:53
    Track
    9
    Title
    Variatio 8. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    01:53
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  10. 10 Variatio 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav. 01:21
    Track
    10
    Title
    Variatio 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:21
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  11. 11 Variatio 10. Fughetta. a 1 Clav. 01:24
    Track
    11
    Title
    Variatio 10. Fughetta. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:24
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  12. 12 Variatio 11. a Clav. 02:04
    Track
    12
    Title
    Variatio 11. a Clav.
    Duration
    02:04
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  13. 13 Variatio 12. Canone alla Quarta. a 1 Clav. 02:15
    Track
    13
    Title
    Variatio 12. Canone alla Quarta. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  14. 14 Variatio 13. a 2 Clav. 05:29
    Track
    14
    Title
    Variatio 13. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    05:29
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  15. 15 Variatio 14. a 2 Clav. 02:21
    Track
    15
    Title
    Variatio 14. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:21
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  16. 16 Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav. 04:27
    Track
    16
    Title
    Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    04:27
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  17. 17 Variatio 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav. 02:06
    Track
    17
    Title
    Variatio 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:06
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  18. 18 Variatio 17. a 2 Clav. 02:04
    Track
    18
    Title
    Variatio 17. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:04
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  19. 19 Variatio 18. Canone alla Sexta. a 1 Clav. 01:30
    Track
    19
    Title
    Variatio 18. Canone alla Sexta. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  20. 20 Variatio 19. a 1 Clav. 02:16
    Track
    20
    Title
    Variatio 19. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:16
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  21. 21 Variatio 20. a 2 Clav. 02:03
    Track
    21
    Title
    Variatio 20. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:03
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  22. 22 Variatio 21. Canone alla Settima. a 1 Clav. 02:58
    Track
    22
    Title
    Variatio 21. Canone alla Settima. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:58
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  23. 23 Variatio 22. a 1 Clav. 01:26
    Track
    23
    Title
    Variatio 22. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:26
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  24. 24 Variatio 23. a 2 Clav. 02:06
    Track
    24
    Title
    Variatio 23. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:06
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  25. 25 Variatio 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav. 02:26
    Track
    25
    Title
    Variatio 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    02:26
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  26. 26 Variatio 25. a 2 Clav. 04:40
    Track
    26
    Title
    Variatio 25. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    04:40
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  27. 27 Variatio 26. a 2 Clav. 02:01
    Track
    27
    Title
    Variatio 26. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:01
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  28. 28 Variatio 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav. 01:56
    Track
    28
    Title
    Variatio 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    01:56
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  29. 29 Variatio 28. a 2 Clav. 01:43
    Track
    29
    Title
    Variatio 28. a 2 Clav.
    Duration
    01:43
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  30. 30 Variatio 29. a 1 o vero 2 Clav. 02:15
    Track
    30
    Title
    Variatio 29. a 1 o vero 2 Clav.
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  31. 31 Variatio 30. Quodlibet. a 1 Clav. 01:49
    Track
    31
    Title
    Variatio 30. Quodlibet. a 1 Clav.
    Duration
    01:49
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer
  32. 32 Aria da capo 03:29
    Track
    32
    Title
    Aria da capo
    Duration
    03:29
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Kurt Rodarmer