Ragna Schirmer’s piano traversal of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is best described as “Glenn Gould echt Deutsch”. Like Gould, Schirmer favors crisply articulated lines with no aid from the sustain pedal. Yet she rarely delivers them with Gould’s enlivening swing and laser-like sense of projection. In contrast to Murray Perahia’s pingy cembalo evocations or Gould’s spiky humor, Schirmer’s détaché touch possesses little timbral variety. It even verges on the percussive to the point where left-hand pitches are sometimes difficult to ascertain at first hearing. Once in a while Schirmer relaxes her sober demeanor and lets the music sing, as in the canons at the third, fourth, fifth, and seventh. One savors these sensitive moments like patches of vegetation on an arid field. Schirmer observes all the repeats (except for the Aria da Capo), yet barely alters or ornaments the music on each second go-round. All told, Ragna Schirmer faces serious competition from the catalog’s finest piano Goldbergs, including Gould, Perahia, and Schiff.
