The 36-year-old Dutch pianist Hannes Minnaar already has a long career behind him, with a series of extraordinary successes. His first CD appeared exactly 10 years ago, with works by
Rachmaninov and
Ravel. Since then, a steady series of recordings has appeared, each of which has been enthusiastically received. And now he presents one of the benchmarks of Western keyboard music, Bach's Goldberg
… Variations. Right from the aria, which forms the starting point of the work, we hear Minnaar's approach to Bach's music. It is calm, graceful and remarkably free in tempo. Minnaar does not shy away from rubato (varying the tempo at one's own discretion), giving the music a romantic atmosphere. At the same time he plays the ornaments (although indicated by Bach) in a wonderfully natural way, and sometimes even approaches the music in an almost improvisatory manner, as for example in variation 4. Minnaar also has a pleasantly individual approach to phrasing (the way in which a melody is performed), so that these Goldberg Variations sound very personal. The famous 25th variation is striking, and Minnaar's performance is shamelessly romantic and melancholic. This performance is certainly not for early music critics (who would shy away from a piano performance), but it is brilliant and refreshing. This is a wonderful CD for those who do not know this masterpiece yet - but also for those who can dream of this work, there is a lot of musical pleasure to be had here. (TC)more
