Original Columbia Cover

Reissue Danté Cover

Columbia Records SAXF-1036 (Stereo)
Columbia Records FCX-1036 (Mono)
Re-issue Danté Records, HPC 022 (Stereo CD) (Volume 1)

Music / MP3
Bach: Goldberg Variations (BWV 988)
1. Aria / 01_bach_goldberg_aria_01.mp3
2. Var. 1 a 1 Clav. / 02_bach_goldberg_var_01.mp3
3. Var. 2 a 1 Clav. / 03_bach_goldberg_var_02.mp3
4. Var. 3 a 1 Clav. Canone all'Unisono / 04_bach_goldberg_var_03.mp3
5. Var. 4 a 1 Clav. / 05_bach_goldberg_var_04.mp3
6. Var. 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. / 06_bach_goldberg_var_05.mp3
7. Var. 6 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Seconda / 07_bach_goldberg_var_06.mp3
8. Var. 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. / 08_bach_goldberg_var_07.mp3
9. Var. 8 a 2 Clav. / 09_bach_goldberg_var_08.mp3
10. Var. 9 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Terza / 10_bach_goldberg_var_09.mp3
11. Var. 10 a 1 Clav. Fughetta / 11_bach_goldberg_var_10.mp3
12. Var. 11 a 2 Clav. / 12_bach_goldberg_var_11.mp3
13. Var. 12 Canone alla Quarta / 13_bach_goldberg_var_12.mp3
14. Var. 13 a 2 Clav. / 14_bach_goldberg_var_13.mp3
15. Var. 14 a 2 Clav. / 15_bach_goldberg_var_14.mp3
16. Var. 15 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quinta / 16_bach_goldberg_var_15.mp3
17. Var. 16 a 1 Clav. Overture / 17_bach_goldberg_var_16.mp3
18. Var. 17 a 2 Clav. / 18_bach_goldberg_var_17.mp3
19. Var. 18 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Sesta / 19_bach_goldberg_var_18.mp3
20. Var. 19 a 1 Clav. / 20_bach_goldberg_var_19.mp3
21. Var. 20 a 2 Clav. / 21_bach_goldberg_var_20.mp3
22. Var. 21 Canone alla Settima / 22_bach_goldberg_var_21.mp3
23. Var. 22 a 1 Clav. Alla breve / 23_bach_goldberg_var_22.mp3
24. Var. 23 a 2 Clav. / 24_bach_goldberg_var_23.mp3
25. Var. 24 a 1 Clav. Can. all'Ottava / 25_bach_goldberg_var_24.mp3
26. Var. 25 a 2 Clav. / 26_bach_goldberg_var_25.mp3
27. Var. 26 a 2 Clav. / 27_bach_goldberg_var_26.mp3
28. Var. 27 a 2 Clav. Canone alla Nona / 28_bach_goldberg_var_27.mp3
29. Var. 28 a 2 Clav. / 29_bach_goldberg_var_28.mp3
30. Var. 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. / 30_bach_goldberg_var_29.mp3
31. Var. 30 a 1 Clav. Quodlibet / 31_bach_goldberg_var_30.mp3
32. Aria da capo / 32_bach_goldberg_aria_02.mp3

Recording Date(s):
May 12 to 15, and November 30, 1964

Recording Location:
Salle Wagram, Paris, France

Release Date:
1965

Known Details:
André had recorded the Goldberg Variations for RCA Victor over three days on December 13, 17, and 23, 1957 but rejected the entire recording session (a total of 87 takes), thus, leaving RCA with nothing to show for a possible record release.

Six years later in 1964, André wanted to try again, this time for Columbia Records. Since this was one of André's favorite works, it's not surprising that for his very first recording for Columbia he wanted to try again, this time over five days, May 12 to 15, and then November 30, 1964. This record is the result of this recording session.

André told the following story about the Goldberg recording session to his friend Michael Menaugh:

André used to recount that while recording the Goldberg Variations for Pathé Marconi in Paris back in 1964, a dog came through the swing doors into the studio, walked up to the piano, cocked its leg against the leg of the piano and... ...then left the way it came. Luckily the 'p' was as silent as in 'pneumonia'. No need for electronic wizardry in the editing stage. When asked whether the incident had distracted him André replied that "as a professional one learns to ignore the critics!"

The following is a review of this Goldberg Variations CD for Fanfare Magazine by Bernard Jacobson:

Against my principles--as you may protest if you recall the views I have expressed about other recordings of the work--I have to declare that this is one of the best performances of the Goldberg Variations I have heard. The specific principle involved is my belief that much of the point of this music depends on the player's ability to vary the repeats creatively and stylishly.

As you can guess from the very short overall timing for this disc [42:44 minutes], André Tchaikowsky observes none of the repeat signs. And yet I enjoyed every moment of his performance enormously, realizing from his measured but irresistibly vivacious treatment of the fourth variation, if not from the very start, that this was to be an interpretative achievement of the highest distinction.

Born in Warsaw in 1936, Tchaikowsky escaped the Holocaust and studied after World War II in Lódz, Paris, and Warsaw, returning to France in 1957 to become a pupil of Nadia Boulanger in composition and Stefan Askenase in piano. Of those two disciplines, composition was the closer to his heart, and from 1960 onward, settling in England, he restricted his concert appearances in order to concentrate on producing a series of works in many genres, including a String Quartet, a Piano Concerto, two song cycles, and an opera based on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice that was nearly complete when he died of cancer in 1982.

Billed by Dante as the first volume in a commemorative series of reissues, this digitally remastered 1964 recording (originally produced by Eric Macleod) reveals Tchaikowsky's playing as crisp but never harsh, with a fine sense of balance among the various strands of Bach's polyphonic textures. Whether or not his instincts as a composer are to be credited for the sheer natural insight of the performance, I am constantly struck by the pianist's unerringly apt choice of tempo and articulation, and the nice equilibrium he achieves between rhetoric and lyricism, pathos and exuberance, extrovert assertion and inward communion. Agreeably in evidence, too, is his sense of humor; this can also be enjoyed in a brief "anti-self-portrait" in French, which is, unaccountably, the only element in the informative booklet left without an English translation [see below].

The end of the review above refers to an "anti-self-portrait" that André wrote for Columbia Records. Here is that portrait in English:

Where to begin? Of the "four temperaments" only the phlegmatic is missing. I have all the qualities of my failings. I am egocentric, impulsive, garrulous, capricious, untidy, lazy, depressive, but also honest, spontaneous, enthusiastic, unselfish, and affectionate. It is obvious that I have too much imagination and my sense of reality has degenerated little by little due to its lack of exercise. I tell lies as easily as I breathe (did I say that I was honest?) but only when this is of no use to me.

Apart from my music I am especially interested in literature. Since my first stay in France, I have spent a lot of time studying the French classics of the 17th Century and, back in Poland, French novels and the great Russian classics. Now that I live in England, I have discovered a real passion for Shakespeare. My dream would be one day to direct "Anthony and Cleopatra" but who in the world would let me? Apart from Shakespeare, my preferences are for Racine, Dostoyevsky, and Proust.

What I love most of all is people. And if I am sometimes taken for a misanthrope, that is because I have a horror of receptions, snobs, and society gossip. These festivals of boredom are sometimes compulsory and I have only made friends by saying what I think of them! Everything which hinders the unpredictable, adventure, and discovery repels me. When on tour what I love is to arrive in a town, leave my suitcases, and go out for a long walk without knowing where it will take me.

Sometimes I play bridge, where my tendency to exaggerate causes me to make bids which are completely mad, and chess, where my lack of organization becomes immediate and painfully obvious. I practice only one sport, swimming. I can also get by in cooking.

With the demise of Danté Records, we can only hope another company takes up the torch to keep the performances of André Tchaikowsky alive.