Bach - Goldberg Variations review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 0

Lang Lang
(Deutsche Grammophon, 4 CDs)
Mannerisms and slow tempi squeeze the life out of Bach’s music, with too few flashes of understanding

Strip away the glitz and glamour, and ignore the media circus that seems to surround every appearance he makes, and Lang Lang is a highly talented pianist, and a serious-minded musician. Bach’s Goldberg Variations certainly isn’t a work to take on unless you’re a serious musician, and though the release of Lang’s recording has been surrounded by the usual hype, it’s a signal, surely, that he wants to be judged on his merits as an artist rather than as a celebrity.

His recording is released in a “de luxe edition” that includes two performances spread extravagantly across four discs. One was recorded under studio conditions, the other is taken from a concert that Lang gave in the Thomaskirche, Bach’s church in Leipzig, in early March this year.