J.S.バッハ: ゴルトベルク変奏曲＜通常盤＞

静寂と躍動の万華鏡、ランラン新境地

前作『ピアノ・ブック』はピアノ学習者の定番レバートリーや世界中各地の親しまれている音楽で、ピアノや音楽の喜びを伝えたラン・ラン。ジャンルを超え、世界を代表するピアニストとしてさらなる活躍を続けています。
今回挑んだバッハの《ゴルトベルク変奏曲》は、比類なき芸術性と華麗さでピアノ芸術の中でも独自の地位を占めています。バロック鍵盤芸術の最高峰であり、鍵盤楽器奏者にとってのエヴェレストと形容されるように最高の技術と音楽性を要求される難曲です。ラン・ランは20年以上にわたってこの傑作を探求し続け、その間、エッシェンバッハやアーノンクールといった偉大な先人たちの薫陶を受け、録音に向けてはシュタイアーの意見を聞くなど、自身の解釈を深め、満を持してこの録音を決行。腕の故障からの復帰や結婚を経て、さらなる人間的・音楽的成熟を果たし、芸術性の新たなステージに立ちました。知・情・意の素晴らしいバランスで深く心に訴える演奏を展開しています。デラックス・バージョンには、スタジオ録音に先立つ10日前に、バッハが音楽監督(トーマスカントル)を務め、バッハの墓が教会内部にあるライプツィヒの聖トーマス教会で行われたライヴ録音も収録されています。熟考を重ねた内省的なスタジオ録音と、自発性を伴う伸び伸びとした演奏のライヴ録音の両方を楽しめます。
CD4枚をキャップボックスに収めた通常盤仕様。
ユニバーサル・ミュージック/IMS

Lang Lang says that he has been playing Bachs Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, from memory since he was a teenager. Hes studied the work along the way and points unexpectedly to Nikolaus Harnoncourt and fortepianist Andreas Staier as figures who shaped his conception of the music, but he waited until age 38 to record the work, in 2020. The results are entirely original, and yet somehow along the lines of what one might expect. Langs treatment is brilliant, charismatic, and quite extreme, with the slow 25th variation coming in at over ten minutes in both performances on the deluxe edition, while other variations are speeded up and emphasize Langs skill in pure passagework. This leads one to the most distinctive feature of this release, one that may well be unprecedented: the deluxe edition includes two Lang performances of the Goldbergs, one recorded in the Berlin Jesus-Christus-Kirche, and the other live at Bachs Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Whats striking is that the two performances, although both recognizably Langs work, are different at almost every turn. Start right in and sample the opening movements, which diverge considerably in tempo, but each reading is coherent and flowing. Lang knows the work well enough that he can produce two entirely diverse readings as if they emerged organically from his thoughts. This familiarity extends down to smaller details: a distinctive feature of his readings is that midway through a variation, he may choose to emphasize an internal line in the counterpoint. He has the chops, of course, to pull this off elegantly, even if its not in the music. So this is in many ways work typical of Lang Lang, but his total internalization of the music and his multiple realizations of what he has internalized command respect, even if not necessarily agreement. Deutsche Grammophons Berlin sound is excellent, but the Thomaskirche recording fuzzes the audience noise of a Leipzig winter night into a sort of low-level background, with less than satisfactory results.