Little Drops of Go(u)ld

When I first met the woman who is now my wife, she took from her handbag a copy of the 1981 recording of Glenn Gould's reading of Bach's
Goldberg Variations. This turned out to be an exquisite series of piano (or rather, harpsichord, properly speaking) pieces based around a central chord progression. Glenn Gould, the canadian eccentric and piano virtuoso can be heard humming and muttering to himself as he plays. I knew that there was another version, recorded almost 30 years earlier and just this week I bought a copy. It is vastly different. Gould's recorded debut (the 1955 Goldberg Variations) is sprightly, quicksilver and full of life where the 1981 is dreamily sombre, romantic and deep with melancholy and febrile thought. It is hard to chose a favourite but one thing I am sure of, I cannot hear the opening aria without thinking of my lovely, lovely wife. What a blessing to have a piece of music so rich that you can have a relationship with it which lasts for years and years.