Having reviewed Lars Vogt’s micromanaged Schubert and Mozart sonatas and magnificent late Brahms piano pieces, I wondered how he’d fare with Bach’s Goldberg Variations. As it happens, he often parks the piece in neutral, especially when he weaves soft legato lines into bland textural porridge by tapering phrase ends so that the final notes barely speak. Perhaps this results from the sonic reverberation. Vogt takes every repeat, including the rarely observed ones in the Aria da capo, varying the second-go-rounds with more prominent left-hand work and discreet yet contrived tenutos and underlinings, such as in the No. 29 Quodlibet. His calculated dynamic scaling ensures a modicum of variety, yet no palpable unifying arc, despite clear-cut tempo relationships between certain variations (Nos. 14 and 15, for example).
While Vogt’s skillful technique and often impressive contrapuntal acumen (his cross-rhythmic accentuation in Nos. 4 and 8) cannot be disputed, he underplays variations that usually benefit from virtuosic ebullience and communicative thrust (Nos. 14, 26, and 29). He also shortchanges the rhythm in the No. 10 Fughetta’s “A” section at times.
To be certain, there are effective, even beautiful moments. I like Vogt’s fleet and flexible approach to the minor-key canon at the fifth No. 15 and the celebrated No. 25 “Black Pearl” variation, along with his tightly sculpted No. 13. Yet you won’t find the forceful personality and cumulative dynamism that distinguish not only our disparate reference piano versions, but, indeed, Vogt’s finest recordings: the aforementioned Brahms, his dazzling Hindemith collaborations with Claudio Abbado, and his overlooked EMI Beethoven Op. 10 No. 1 and Op. 111 Sonatas. As such, this release could have been excellent, rather than “just OK”.
