CONCERT

Carnegie Hall
Andras Schiff - Piano

• Bach - Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
• Beethoven - Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120

"András Schiff would make Bach proud," proclaimed New York magazine of one of his recent performances. In fact, "there is nothing more reliable in the world of classical music today than pianist András Schiff playing Bach" (The New York Times). The peerless pianist comes to Carnegie Hall to perform one of the composer’s most beloved series of keyboard works, theGoldberg Variations, as well as its counterpart from the Classical period, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH  Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

The Goldberg Variations is a monumental work, displaying superior compositional craft through a tight-knit formal framework. Every third variation is a canon at a progressively larger interval: Variation 3 at the unison, Variation 6 at the second, Variation 9 at the third, and so on. Since Bach composed the work for harpsichord, these knotty variations are usually written for two separate manuals on the instrument, thereby necessitating much hand-crossing and overlapping when played on the modern piano.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120

In 1819, publisher Anton Diabelli asked several Austro-Hungarian composers to pen one or two variations on a waltz that he had written. Beethoven boorishly declined, commenting that the waltz was nothing more than a simplistic stringing-together of clichés. Yet he must have recognized its potential for adaptation when he returned to the waltz three years later, planning to write a handful of variations but ending up with no fewer than 33. The flabbergasted Diabelli decided to publish the set on its own, declaring it "a great and important masterpiece worthy to be ranked with the imperishable creations of the Classics."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3nwoWiR4Z-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNWOhm5iXxs

Here Schiff plays Bach.  The Goldberg Variations lasted one hour and twenty minutes long!  Then he played the Beethoven which also lasted over an hour!

His one encore lasted fifteen minutes!

The guy can memorize and he likes to play!

The concert was a tour de force by both the composers and the performer.