Gustav Leonhardt (Harpsichord)
■Release date: March 16, 2024
■Product number: ESSW-90290
■Specifications: Super Audio CD Hybrid
■JAN：4907034225378
■Label: Warner Classics (formerly Telefunken)
■Sound source provided by: Warner Music Japan Co., Ltd.
■Genre: Instrumental music
■DSD Mastering
■Super Audio CD layer: 2 channel stereo
■Beautiful and luxurious paper digipak packaging used
Gustav Leonhardt's second "Goldberg", which conveys the original musical beauty of the eloquently honed and dynamic harpsichord, is now available in the world's first Super Audio CD hybrid with a long-awaited new remaster.
■A leader in the revival of early music who benefited from the evolution of recording and playback technology in the 20th century.
One of the post-World War II musical trends, from Baroque to Renaissance, is based on the original instruments and reproductions of the original instruments from the time when the music was composed, as well as original music that uses the performance styles of the time. Restorationist performances began to develop in earnest. This ``early music revival'' movement was strongly supported by the rapid evolution of recording and playback technology in the 20th century, with the beginning of tape recording, the development of LP records, and the advent of the stereo era. By being able to faithfully record the original sound, it is now possible to easily reproduce the charm of the delicate and subtle tones of original instruments on a home system.Moreover, even if the volume in the demonstration is low and the instrument is not suitable for performance in a large venue, This is because recording with a microphone compensates for the low volume. This movement of ``early music revival'' through records suddenly accelerated with the creation of specialized labels such as Deutsche Grammophon's Archief Production and Telefunken's Das Alte Werk. The driving force behind this early music revival in the second half of the 20th century was Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012), a Dutch keyboard player and conductor. The performance philosophy, research content, and repertoire of early music that he pioneered and established with his contemporaries Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016), Bruggen (France) (1934-2014), and Anna Bylsma (1934-2019), etc. Along with his activities and educational activities, he has spread around the world through the recording of over 200 albums, enriching the reception of music, and has continued to be passed down to the present day.
■A master praised as “Leonhardt is Bach”
Fascinated by the sound of the harpsichord his father had purchased at the age of 15, Leonhardt studied harpsichord and organ at the Basel Schola Cantorum, graduating with a diploma with highest honors in 1950, and in the same year joined his Vienna harpsichord. It is making its debut. In 1952, at a young age, he began teaching at the Vienna Academy of Music, and during this period he began recording records, including solo recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and ``The Technique of the Fugue'' at the Vanguard/Bach Guild. ・I leave it on the label. In 1955, he began teaching at the Sweelinck Academy of Music in Amsterdam, where he soon began an extensive performance career. He began recording for Telefunken in 1958 and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in 1962, building up an extensive discography for both labels. Because Leonhardt had such a wide and deep knowledge of music history, his basic approach to recording records was not to record all his songs in an encyclopedic manner, but to create albums in which carefully selected works were combined into a single disc. Of these, only Bach's harpsichord works have been recorded slowly and continuously over a period of about 20 years, covering all of his major works, on multiple labels, with a special and intensive focus that is unique to him. It can be seen that efforts are being made. His ally Brüggen famously said, ``Leonhardt is Bach.'' Leonhardt did not just grasp the musical aspects of his works, but rather understood them in the context of a wide range of cultural, art, architecture, and thought movements of his time. He adhered to the stoic philosophy that only by doing so could he truly bring the work back to the present day.
■A masterpiece that conveys the charm of the Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord
By the time Leonhardt recorded his second Goldberg Variations in 1965, it had been nearly ten years since Glenn Gould's revolutionary recording of the song had appeared on the market, and the song also had its fair share of quality. It has gained popularity in both stereo and harpsichord recordings by Helmut Walcher (Electra/EMI), Ralph Kirkpatrick (Archief), Sylvia Marlowe (Decca), George Malcolm (Oisorir), and many others. It was on sale. However, all of them are harpsichordists of an older generation than Leonhardt. In that sense as well, the Leonhardt version, in which every aspect was carefully examined, including the logicality of the aria and 30 variations, the tempo distribution of each variation, and the presence or absence of repeats, had a major impact on the reception of this work. The instrument used was a new instrument built by Martin Skovronek in 1962, modeled on J.D. Durken's harpsichord (Antwerp, 1745), and Leonhardt used this instrument in many of his recordings of Bach's works until the early 1970s. Masu.
■“I have never met a musician like him.”
Curiously, the recording location and producer/engineer of this important recording were unknown, and the year of recording was listed as "unknown" or "before 1965" for a long time. With this release, the Japanese version will finally be officially listed as ``Producer: Wolf Eriksson'' and ``April 28-30, 1965, Bennebruck, Reformed Church.'' Compared to the Arhifu label, which started its activities earlier, and the later Seon label, Telefunken's Das Arte Werk label has fewer recordings on the jacket, and there are many recordings for which details cannot be ascertained. 's Goldberg Variations was one such piece. In the "New Gustav Leonhardt Edition" released in 2022, it was revealed that the producer was Wolf Eriksson (1928-2019), who was in charge of the production of Das Alte Werk at the time. Ta. Eriksson, who studied organ building and joined Telefunken in 1957, was in charge of recording organ works by Karl Richter and Bach using historic organs from churches across Germany that had survived the war and were still in existence. I realized the importance of playing an instrument. Ericsson took the lead in establishing Das Arte Werk, a label specializing in early music within Telefunken. Eriksson met Leonhardt in 1961 at a recording session for Bach's Harpsichord Concerto with a small ensemble, and since then he has worked with Telefunken, the Seon label founded by Eriksson in 1969, and Sony Classical's early music division label in 1989. As a result, we continued to collaborate for a long time, including the Vivarte label, which was also founded by Ericsson. Regarding Leonhardt, Ericsson said, ``He is an expert in Baroque music and the greatest interpreter of Bach's music.He not only plays the organ and harpsichord, but also has an outstanding talent as an ensemble organizer. I've never met an artist like that, and I don't know of any artist who consistently maintains such high standards and achieves success."
recorded music
johann sebastian bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
[1]-[32] Goldberg Variations BWV988
Goldberg-Variationen, BWV 988
(Clavier Etudes Volume 4 Aria and 30 Variations)
(»Aria mit 30 Veränderungen«: Klavierübung Teil IV)
Gustav Leonhardt (Harpsichord/Made by Martin Skovronek [Bremen, 1962] based on J.D. Durken's model [Antwerp, 1745])
Gustav Leonhardt, Cembalo
(Kielflügel von Martin Skowroneck, nach J. D. Dulcken)
[Recording] April 28-30, 1965 Hervormde Kerk, Bennebroek, Netherlands
[First appearance] Telefunken SAWT 9474-A (1965)
[First Japanese release] Telefunken SR1054 (August 1967)
[Original recording]
[Recording producer] Wolf Eriksson
[Super Audio CD Producer] Tomoaki Oma (Esoteric Co., Ltd.)
[Super Audio CD Associate Producer] Minoru Yoshida (Esoteric Co., Ltd.)
[Super Audio CD Remastering Engineer] Shinya Higashino (Esoteric Co., Ltd.)
[Super Audio CD Remaster] November 2023 Esoteric Mastering Center, “Esoteric Mastering” System
[Commentary] Kozo Asari Takaki Yazawa
[Planning/Sales] Esoteric Co., Ltd.
[Planning/Cooperation] Tokyo Denka Co., Ltd.