Andrea Bacchetti Official Web Site

I have listened a lot to Andrea Bacchetti's Bach and I must say I find it easy to live with. The percussive attack of his Fazioli piano is only a step away from the ping of the harpsichord, and in spite of the modern instrument Bacchetti's approach could be termed historically informed, inasmuch as he allows ornamentation to make the primary contribution to expression. While he does vary his touch and dynamics, he does not overdo it, and the clarity of his articulation is never sacrificed. He never adopts a 19th-century style legato, and tends to avoid the level of rubato that Angela Hewitt has taken to using to underline significant musical junctures. Bacchetti gets on with things; hear how he throws himself into the very first variation. It is vigorous and joyful, even a touch crude on certain accented bass notes (which I like).

Bacchetti's Goldbergs are unquestionably of the 18th century, but there is a trade-off. A warmer and more pliable pianistic sonority comes from Simone Dinnerstein in her breakthrough recording of a few years ago, and a distinguished piece of work it is. Dinnerstein - and for that matter, Perahia - can give a sense of the arch of the work as a whole. Both of those pianists place the Goldbergs at the beginning of an unbroken line leading to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and on to the great sets of piano variations by Brahms, Reger, and Rachmaninoff. In their accounts, the return of the theme at the end is something more than a neat coda; it carries the weight of an epiphany. Bacchetti's performance is not greater than the sum of its parts in that way, but as his variations succeed one another the parts are very enjoyable. There is humor to be found in Bach, and Bacchetti is well aware of it, tossing off variation 20's rapid scale passages in a delightfully offhand manner, and relishing the abrupt curtailment of the canonic variation 24. Glenn Gould had the benefit of both approaches: youthful elan in his 1955 recording and structural cohesion in 198 I (I am aware that this is something of an oversimplification).

To sum up, this would not be my only version of the Goldbergs, but I will return to Bacchetti in admiration of the pianist's stunning articulation and sheer energy. The additional pieces (including the perennial Minuet in G and C-Major Prelude from Book 1 of The Well-tempered Clavier) are similarly fresh and poised.
Phillip Scott