Lang Lang – Goldberg Variations

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Tracklist

A1	Aria	5:20
A2	Variatio 1 A 1 Clav.	2:07
A3	Variatio 2 A 1 Clav.	1:37
A4	Variatio 3 A 1 Clav. Canone All’Unisuono	3:10
A5	Variatio 4 A 1 Clav.	1:04
A6	Variatio 5 A 1 Ov Vero 2 Clav.	1:22
A7	Variatio 6 A 1 Clav. Canone Alla Seconda	1:13
A8	Variatio 7 A 1 Ov Vero 2 Clav. Al Tempo DI Giga	2:20
A9	Variatio 8 A 2 Clav.	2:00
B1	Variatio 9 A 1 Clav. Canone Alla Terza	2:13
B2	Variatio 10 A 1 Clav. Fughetta	1:40
B3	Variatio 11 A 2 Clav.	2:26
B4	Variatio 12. Canone Alla Quarta	2:10
B5	Variatio 13 A 2 Clav.	6:09
B6	Variatio 14 A 2 Clav.	2:18
B7	Variatio 15 A 1 Clav. Canone Alla Quinta	6:28
C1	Variatio 16 A 1 Clav. Ouverture	2:45
C2	Variatio 17 A 2 Clav.	2:01
C3	Variatio 18 A 1 Clav. Canone Alla Sesta	1:43
C4	Variatio 18 A 1 Clav. Canone Alla Sesta	1:16
C5	Variatio 20 A 2 Clav.	2:04
C6	Variatio 21. Canone Alla Settima	4:31
C7	Variatio 22 A 1 Clav. Alla Breve	1:28
C8	Variatio 23 A 2 Clav.	2:13
C9	Variatio 24 A 1 Clav. Canone All’Ottava	3:02
D1	Variatio 24 A 1 Clav. Canone All’Ottava	10:01
D2	Variatio 26 A 2 Clav.	1:48
D3	Variatio 27 A 2 Clav. Canone Alla Nona	1:37
D4	Variatio 28 A 2 Clav.	2:05
D5	Variatio 29 A 1 Ov Vero 2 Clav.	2:07
D6	Variatio 30 A 1 Clav. Quodlibet	2:30
D7	Aria Da Capo E Fine	6:26

180 Gram Heavyweight Vinyl
Recorded at Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin on March 15 - 18, 2020

	Title (Format)	Label	Cat#	Country	Year
Recently Edited	Goldberg Variations (2×CD, Stereo)	Deutsche Grammophon	481 8971	Europe	2020
Recently Edited	Goldberg Variations (4×CD, Album, Deluxe Edition, Limited Edition)	Deutsche Grammophon, Deutsche Grammophon	481 9701, 00289 481 9701	Europe	2020
New Submission	Goldberg Variations (2×CD, Album)	Deutsche Grammophon	481 9856	Poland	2020

Manuel-de-Poictesme Jan 7, 2022
And here we have it folks: the sacrilege of sacrileges for Bach in the 21st century. The recording which has likely solidified my dislike of Lang Lang for good. I already disliked his overly mannered, showy, nit-picky, intrusive, and overall distasteful approaches to most things. Whether it's Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, even Liszt of all people. I disliked this right from the start and that remains. But when I heard this for the first time, I knew he'd gone too far.
Approaching Bach, anything by Bach I mean, with the kind of decadent flamboyancy his style is prone to - if not essential for his sound - is about the equivalent of smearing feces on the Mona Lisa. It ruins the quality of the music, turning it into a circus show centred, on how many trills and accents and other ornaments the pianist can add. It not only detracts needlessly or excessively from the Baroque style, but really just from the music itself, by itself. If anyone actually cares about Bach, I'd pray they avoid this like the plague. And had Lang himself been caring, he should've abandoned the project altogether.