Maria Yudina plays Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1/8)

[jonjon1957jonjon]

I've been getting to know Yudina's fascinating playing through UTube and have looking forward to this Bach. It is so balletic. Is there any possibility of a copy with better sound quality. What is the provenance of this recording?

[LestraJo]

Maria Yudina appartient a une autre génération que Glenn Gould, c'est une autre vision des choses, une autre école, il ne faut pas comparer...

[maeleong2000]

Yudina's interpretation of this piece is very rich, expressive, and full of feelings. I like the mono sound too...

[GBADCD]

Maria Yudina, the shadow of Glenn.

[truecrypt]

@GBADCD

Glenn Gould hasn't appeared from nothing... He may be went farther then Yudina in some respect, but it doesn't put her under his "shadow".

[GBADCD]

@truecrypt I think it was this interpretation of Yudina "Goldberg Variations", who circulated by the West on tape making the delight of music lovers. She and Gould are the two greatest interpreters of Bach. When he made a tour to Russia, was Yudina greet him.

[fmckramden]

Maria can play this with me any time ;) i wish...

no creepys, i 'd suggest you check out some of the other recordings in the advertisement column on your right.

Love this recording and love the pops and cracks of the album. Wish i had it in my home. toot ta loo ...fm

[jakaput]

I love her Aria, quit differenet from Gould! Sounds very up beat/ modern to me, great interpretation. 

[MsMelomaniaca]

Fantástico : )

[suprematismus]

i have the impression that Claudio Arrau's interpretation is one of the best

[jonnyenglishlim]

i do not know much abt yudina... but this kind of playing kind of reminds me of the italian pianist arturo michelangeli, very straight, vertical and precise without any fuss

[ebnykhda]

Total music control and great expression. Thank you for sharing this wonderful and hardly unknown pianist of the Stalin era!!! Russia had so many unheard of musical gems!

[rabbittown1900]

良い音色でした！。

[WatchBlueSkies]

beautiful. 

[vdmerwe]

I'm not feeling it. Maybe Gould has tainted my tastes...but hey.

[Gydinglight12]

Yudina was such a Free Spirit that she kept writing letters to Stalin telling him to get right with Jesus, and Stalin was such a fan of her playing that he did not have her shot or locked up. Ruslanova was not even so lucky.

[banisherNL]

need some help. I know there is a version of bwv 988 in a much, much slower way of playing.

but who plays it?

[danyarivw]

Yudina has the patience to tell me about Bach, and I absorb HER teachings with a great reverence and peace of soul she creates .

[Ruchfun]

I read that Gould did not consider the Goldberg a masterpiece,indeed believed them overvalued,but their enigma captured him and for decrypt this message studied and analized it for all his life:So there is a big difference betwen the first recording of 1955 and the last

of 1981:he himself had studied Goldberg from

"different point of wiew"!Anyway I prefere that of 1955,the other is a maddeningly slow.

[Pogouldiwitz]

Gavrilov's interpretation has been growing on me lately. At first I disliked it, I thought some of the faster variations where to aggressive and too fast. However, with each listening, something new is uncovered.

[lostpebble]

Contemplative quality is essential especially on the first movement. If indeed the performance was about a conversation with the divine, then Gould's was one of complete submission whereas Yudina was one of questionings ... this of course a personal opinion.

[Ruchfun]

Truecrypt,what do you think about Gould's variations? There are many different views

about this artist:some critics call him a genius,others says he was just a well-produced propaganda.How can existe two opposite and conflicting assessment?Do you prefere Youdina,as interpretation and tecnique?

If yes,Why?

A greeting:)

[truecrypt]

Gould's variation (especially 1955 recording) is an epochal event! I remember my first impression of his playing - nothing short of revelation. Gould's art is strongly individualistic and as such it brings up polarizing opinions. I don't prefer Yudina... or Gould... or Landowska... they help me to see this creation from different points of view. Strangely enough, just yesterday I was thinking about possibility to play it not as a super-human artifact, but as an "intimate" piece of music...

[mvolkov11]

@Ruchfun I would like the name of any respected and knowledgeable critic who thought or now thinks

that Glenn Gould was just a piece of well-produced propaganda. There is an infinte range of acceptable limits within any kind of repertoire. Yudina and Gould are very different, not so much in tempos as in the very sound they get out of the piano. But what is remarkable about Gould is that one can strongly disagree with what he does but still recognize genius in the details of his execution.

[kph2105]

Great Yudina! We love you!

P.S. Also, thank you Bach...

P.P.S. Also thank you Goldberg

P.P.P.S Also thank you God

[truecrypt]

@kph2105

We should also thank Count Kaiserling for his migrain headache and generosity! ;)

[BrucknerMotet]

I tried to click on the "thumb's up" icon for this comment, but alas no such icon appeared. A comment shall thus be made on the wit of truecrypt to send the proverbial "shout out" to Count Kaiserling. Truly, the benefactors don't get nearly their share of fame these days. Not like 500 years back and the Facebook quilt of benefactor iconography plastering the tryptichs and Biblical paintings.

[Renshen1957]

@truecrypt Or Bach's first Biographer, Forkel, for having such a vivid imagination.

[artsloving]

@kph2105 P.P.P.P.S.: This composition is far better than any religion. Thank you art for not being a slave of ideology. Thank you science and intelligence.

[artsloving]

@artsloving Gould´s intepretation is incomparably deeper. But she is nice.

[sergiomxdf]

@kph2105 I was thinking almost the same.

[sergiomxdf]

@kph2105 I was thinking almost the same : Estaba pensando casi lo mismo.

[lostpebble]

Great !!! I love her articulations on this .... superb !!!

[oEXARCHIAo]

Is there a recording of Yudina playing Art of Fugue? I wonder how she compares with Tatiana (my favourite).

[ramonetes]

Glen Gould's version is nothing next to this one.

[gavinvalmont]

It is a rather rough attack at bach...

[sylvio1980]

"This kind of Bach playing would fail at most conservatorys " - funny, because Josef Hoffman, Moiseiewitsch, Gould, and many other great pianist would have never been able to graduate from any respectable conservatory today. And yet their performances are most listened to and admired today.

[joy1ess]

Glenn Gould DID go to Royal Conservatory of Music and DID graduate.  so did most top classical musicians - Yoyo Ma went to Julliard, Julian Bream went to Royal College of Music.

[Allornon]

most probably... no institution would have stopped Gould from playing his piano either! He would have kept on going

[Theonedue]

Gould got the highest honors at the Conservatory in Toronto when he was 12 years old.

[ukdralex]

@sylvio1980 because we love eccentricity and individuality, while institutions - schools, conservatoires, universities, are Systems and they inherently hate the awkward and the unique. If you wish to cultivate individual confidence, don't put much intellectual store into schools, etc. Give ourselves and our children the freedom to express as Gould, etc do through their artistry.

[MuscleDaddyCMH]

@sylvio1980

THANK YOU for saying this! Gould's playing of this just makes my skin crawl, except in isolated variations....his playing of the aria is as much like natural singing as a dead slug, and with all those woodpecker-inspired ornaments too.

[lovesGenet]

this YUDINA.what kind of dynamics are these and the sudden changeofcharacter and tone at end of first part of aria .that is certainly not a Baroque aesthetic it's like a godard jump cut. WHAT S SHE DOING ?Her rough attacks seem wrong for this kind of music.this kind of Bach playing would fail at most conservatorys.And this woman had a grt curious mind but what is thisgoing on!!!iTiis upsetting, strange playing in not the way gould or Tatieva .

[truecrypt]

Dear lovesGenet,

You are simply not ready for this interpretation yet. Study hard for the next 50 years and you might change your opinion... Until then BachScholar's performance should satisfy your sophisticated taste quite well.

BTW, you probably wanted to say "Tatiana Nikolayeva" instead of Tatieva?

[BrucknerMotet]

"Tatieva" might be a commonly-used portmanteau-ish nickname combining Ms. Nikolayeva's first and last names, a nickname used by those more acquainted with her, or used to project a sense of intimacy with the great pianist. Just a possibility.

[tocalpianix]

This kind of playing would fail at most conservatories? Some conservatory teachers might even kill to be able to have Yudina's technique, fluidity, and rhythmic imagination. You might not enjoy her performance but it certainly is radically original and sincere, not like that of a lot of pianists trying to play like Glenn Gould. Pianists should get to their own versions by years of study and interiorization, not by listening to Gould and trying to copy him.

[ramonetes]

Tatieva? do you want to say Nikolayeva? I think Nikolayeva version about golberg aria is the best, too.

[gcastan100]

tureck's interpretation is boring

[janmoeyaert1]

i hate it when the bass note comes behind the melody note!

[BachScholar]

I always try to take a break and listen later with an "open mind" because sometimes I change my opinions. But I still find this performance of the Goldbergs pretty bad. I find it the opposite of ohrenbrausen, in that the more I listen the worse it becomes. I don't know what it is, but her playing makes me nervous.

[jsnauwaert]

There are some things that are disturbing: unnecessary repititions, unstable tempi, ... Overall pretty interesting though. Not my favorite, for sure.

[BachScholar]

jsnauwaert: I think the thing that disturbs me most about her playing is her awful tone quality. I've listened to many of her videos now and her tone is terrible. It's harsh and percussive sounding.

[jsnauwaert]

Bach Scholar: you are right, I am afraid. It is not all the time harsh and percussive sounding, but sometimes it is. Moreover, she sometimes accentuates the wrong notes (at least, in my ears).

[ohrenbrausen]

The more I listen to it, the more I like it. All of them. She is a character.

[BachScholar]

I appreciate this for its historical value, but I really don't like Yudina's playing of these variations very much. I also find taking all the repeats tedious.

[billyguns2]

The greatest Goldberg Variations on piano is Rosalyn Tureck's from Russia in 1995, fortunately available on YouTube; however, this is beautiful on its own terms, and profoundly musical. Yudina deserves to be much more widely known and appreciated.

[goldberg72]

rosalin tureck similar

[mf2101]

Did Gould meet her in Russia?

[alexongcs]

Both of their Bach is just simply amazing.

[GetMeThere1]

I like this. Quite different from Gould; it stands on its own, though.

[go9zu]

Thanks,this recording is just great!

[liokuokwai]

THANK YOU 100000000 times FOR UPLOADING IT.