wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

GUESTS
Katharine Graham
Peter Jennings
Philippe de Montebello
Helmut Schmidt
James Wolfensohn

RECORDINGS
J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Vladimir Feltsman, piano. MusicMasters Classics 67093-2.
J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould, piano. CBS Great Performances MYK 38479.
J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould, piano. CBS Records / Masterworks MK 37779.

TRANSCRIPT

[Intro]

Kaplan As we rounded out the first season of "Mad About Music", we made a surprising discovery: of the thousands of pieces of music in the classical repertoire, 50% of our guests all selected one work: Bach's Goldberg Variations. We'll tell you who and why on this special summer edition of "Mad About Music".

[Theme music]

Kaplan: This is Gilbert Kaplan. The question: "What do ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings, Katharine Graham of The Washington Post, former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, and Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello have in common?" This could be a trivia question on a very erudite game show. But, if you listened throughout the first season of "Mad About Music" you would know that this diverse group of people all selected Bach's Goldberg Variations as one of their favorite pieces of music. Their reasons were as varied as their backgrounds, and during this special hour we'll revisit their comments about the Variations and listen to extensive excerpts of the work.

What is it about this nearly three hundred year old piece for solo keyboard that makes it so eternally popular? Is it the haunting, simple, main theme? Or the 30 variations, each in its own style, some powerful, some tender, which together weave a magical carpet of wonderful melodies? Whatever the reason, this is the melody that starts it all.

[Music]

Kaplan: The opening aria of Bach's Goldberg Variations. This work made its first appearance on "Mad About Music" already in our pilot program with guest ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings. He selected the Variations mainly because of his association with an artist - pianist Vladimir Feltsman. I asked Jennings if he had covered the pianist as a news story when Feltsman defected from the Soviet Union during the 1980s.

Jennings: I did. In fact, I was one of the first journalists ever to know Vladimir in the Soviet Union at the time and found Vladimir trying to get out of the country. He and his wife, Anna. I went and did a story about them. And I remember standing in his little apartment in Moscow, which was filled - it wasn't much bigger than this little radio studio. And it was all piano and all sheet music! And standing there, while he played the piano, looking out the window at the K.G.B. guards walking around and around the building. And then when it was - when we finished our piece and he played something, he lifted up the top of the piano and there, under the strings, assumedly he thought where the K.G.B might not find it if they ever decided to come to the apartment, was this wonderfully heart-rending letter of support from President Reagan which had been facilitated by the American Ambassador's wife. And then, of course, he got out, and he came and I was here for his debut concert at Carnegie Hall.

I have to tell you, by the way, on the subject of "Mad About Music", unlike a lot of your more serious music listeners, I can't always tell the difference between the same piece of music played by two different people. For me, music is a total experience and my selections are much more associated with the people - not much more, but certainly as associated with the people and the history of my association with the people than it is about the precise piece of music.

Kaplan: So in Peter Jennings' case it was the artist, Vladimir Feltsman, that led him to select the Bach Goldberg Variations; here then, Feltsman plays Bach.

[Music]

Kaplan: An excerpt from Bach's Goldberg Variations as played by Vladimir Feltsman and selected by my first guest on "Mad About Music", ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings. This is Gilbert Kaplan; on this special edition of "Mad About Music" We're exploring the strange fact that 50% of the guests appearing during our first season all selected Bach's Goldberg Variations. Peter Jennings selected it because of the performer, Vladimir Feltsman, which brings us to another interesting coincidence. Of all the available recordings of the Variations our guests selected only two performers: Feltsman and Glenn Gould. World Bank President James Wolfensohn also selected Feltsman but, in his case, it was Feltsman's unique interpretation.

Wolfensohn: His repertoire in Bach particularly is remarkable. He has an enormously broad repertoire. But his recordings of Bach and his performances of Bach, I heard him play at the "Y" several years ago on successive evenings, or successive weeks, I guess it was, performances of Bach which left me really stunned. And I've chosen for the performance today a performance of the Goldberg Variations, which is a fascinating performance. I had grown up as I guess Valadia had on the Gould recording which is by any measure magical. But this is a different type of recording, this is a recording where Valadia takes all the repeats in the Bach and he also changes the voices in the Variations, so that he'll bring out the alto or the tenor differently than he may have in the first Variation and I find that when I listen to this recording which must be 20 minutes longer than the Gould recording, that you hear things in these Variations which I've not heard in any other recording.

[Music]

Kaplan: Vladimir Feltsman playing part of Bach's Goldberg Variations. These Variations are the focus of this special summer edition of "Mad About Music". If you have a story about a memorable performance of these Variations, e-mail it to us at MAMPRODUCER@AOL.COM. We'd love to hear from you.

[Station Break]

Kaplan:This is Gilbert Kaplan on a special summer edition of "Mad About Music". Today we're focusing on one piece of music that was chosen by 50% of the guests on our show: Bach's Goldberg Variations. Next, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello. He anticipated the work's popularity when he chose it, but he dealt with that head on.

de Montebello: I figured that it would be a very popular piece and again as I said for the Rachmaninoff, I wanted to be honest. It would have been so easy for me to choose something else but when I really sort of examined my relationship to music, I realized that probably the single piece that I play the most often actually, in a car, is the Goldberg Variations, so I had to choose it to be honest. It's the piece that I play the most often. It has to me absolutely everything for someone that likes the piano. As I said, not the harpsichord, so while I have Wanda Landowska playing it, it's wonderful. I prefer it on the piano. I like the second version of Glenn Gould. I find the first a little choppy and not altogether logical in its sequences. I love variations in general, Beethoven's Diabelli I love and other things. The sense of cadence, of rhythm, with Gould, with the great clarity, the contrasts, the inner logic that follows, just a piece that to me musically and in every way that's totally satisfying.

[Music]

Kaplan: Glenn Gould playing part of Bach's Goldberg Variations, a selection of Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello when he joined us on "Mad About Music" earlier this year. Although Gould enthusiasts debate about which of the two studio recordings is best - the 1955 or the 1981 - it turns out there are actually four recordings when you include Gould's two "live" performances - a 1954 Canadian radio broadcast and his 1959 recital at the Salzburg Festival. As we just heard, de Montebello preferred the studio recording in the second version - a view shared by Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. I asked Chancellor Schmidt when during his life he first encountered the work.

Schmidt: This I can date very exactly, I guess. I mentioned earlier that there was singing in my parent's flat, and the leader was a cousin of hers, a music teacher. And I remember that somebody once brought him to play for us and he did choose the Goldberg Variations and he had the notes with him and played all the harmony. Thirty, I guess, variations. I never forget that. Later on, I heard many other pianists play Goldberg but in my view Glenn Gould is the best one.

[Music]

Kaplan: An excerpt of Bach's Goldberg Variations - the work and performance selected during our visit earlier this year with former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. This is Gilbert Kaplan; we have one more guest who chose the Variations and we'll hear her reason after this.

[Station Break]