Pianist Joe Chindamo has created a performing version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in which he plays the original keyboard score as written, and superimposes a newly composed violin counterline. It’s an interesting idea in theory, yet in practice it doesn’t always work.
The slow and sustained violin writing in the Aria lacks the keyboard part’s melodic distinction, while it essentially doubles much of Variation 1’s top keyboard line. In No. 2 the violin jumps from one keyboard line to another, doubling at will and pulling focus from the keyboard’s clearly delineated three-part texture. At first No. 4’s rapid violin lines provide a fresh contrast to the keyboard’s canon at the unison, yet the melodic momentum quickly dissipates. No. 5’s fast scales in short phrases prove more convincing, mainly because the pianist provides a slower and more yielding framework than what you’d expect from a solo rendition. However, in the cross-handed No. 6 the violin part sometimes asserts itself independently, only to tag along like a fifth wheel elsewhere.
On the other hand, No. 7’s busy fiddle writing clutters things up, and crushes the original Siciliano tempo’s inherent lilt in the process. Similarly, by filling in the spaces of No. 16’s opening section with imitative rejoinders, the violin all but vanquishes the pomp and swagger implicit in the keyboard part’s original dotted rhythms. Chindamo also has the violin play a version of No. 29’s swirling downward triplet lines on top of the keyboard’s opening broken chords. When the keyboard arrives at the triplets, the violin takes up the broken chords at the same time–again, clutter.
It would have been better for Chindamo to deploy the solo keyboard writing between violin and piano toward more pliable and less rigid interactive ends, with far greater potential for timbral and textural contrast without compromising the integrity of Bach’s contrapuntal structures. After that, you can afford to add a counterline, or even two. Abetted by superb recorded sound, Chindamo and violinist Zoë Black play well, and although they make a case for the pianist’s fascinating arrangement, it nevertheless left me unconvinced.
