Ricomincia la mia stagione dei concerti: stasera Andras Schiff ci suona le Variazioni Goldberg. C’è una bella intervista della rivista Fidelio a Schiff, in cui spiega il suo rapporto con la musica di Bach:
Above all, Bach’s lack of egotism—the incredible devotion and modesty. With Bach, we don’t have the “image of genius” that certainly so strongly characterizes Mozart. But, people must be for sure very clear about Bach’s enormous gift, his uniqueness. For me, Bach is a very religious man, in the best sense of the word: a man who considers the composing of music as a mission, as a duty. The quality that comes forth in his work is truly astounding; he writes his compositions day-in and day-out, and yet, they don’t seem labored. Bach’s music radiates this purity: purity in the polyphony, as well as clarity and transparency of the entire composition, whereby, each voice, each note is important. In Bach, nothing is subordinate.
This is otherwise an aesthetical principle in art for me. I’m mainly thinking here about economy—that one not write as many notes as possible. In this respect, composers such as Liszt and Berlioz fail completely: because, first of all, they have nothing to do with Bach; and second, they lack the modesty, as well as the economy and discipline. I could remove half of a gloss by Liszt and the piece wouldn’t suffer. You can’t remove one note from a Bach fugue!
Esiste addirittura il sito dei maniaci delle Variazioni Goldberg: tutto quello che avresti voluto sapere, e molto di più.
Un assaggio: Murray Perahia, Aria (3,18MB)