With no shortage of recordings on the market for Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, the challenge for the rising performer is to stand out from the crowd. California-based pianist Takae Ohnishi, who was trained and is active in both the U.S. and her native Japan, manages to do so. Although she plays a harpsichord -- a Marc Ducornet instrument modeled on the powerful Ruckers harpsichords of Bach's time -- you might say that her Bach is pianistic. The dynamics and pedal effects of a piano aren't available to her, of course, ...
Read More
With no shortage of recordings on the market for Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, the challenge for the rising performer is to stand out from the crowd. California-based pianist Takae Ohnishi, who was trained and is active in both the U.S. and her native Japan, manages to do so. Although she plays a harpsichord -- a Marc Ducornet instrument modeled on the powerful Ruckers harpsichords of Bach's time -- you might say that her Bach is pianistic. The dynamics and pedal effects of a piano aren't available to her, of course, but Ohnishi is a "strong" player who maximizes the contrasts among Bach's variations and has the technical chops to do so, offering a variety of articulation styles. The virtuoso hand-crossing pieces are hard-edged, quick, and precise, while the complex slow lyrical ones are as cantabile as a harpsichord can be. The virtue of this approach is that it emphasizes the keyboard-compendium aspect of Bach's masterwork; the disadvantage is that its superstructure, the symmetries among its...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.