I have been performing ”Aria” of Goldberg Variations for String Trio, Harpsichord and finally arrived at Piano. At first, I tried to sequence it for piano, but it was very difficult to handle polyphony. So I assigned each voice part to a violin, viola, and cello and performed them in while checking the roles of each part. After that, I used the roles of the voices that I had sequenced in the string trio and tried to play them on the original harpsichord. Finally, I arrived at the piano part. Unlike the harpsichord, the modern piano allows for a variety of nuances to be added to the sound. On the contrary, I felt that this made it even more difficult to play this simple and beautiful piece.
It seems that world famous pianists have spent considerable time studying and playing this piece. My musical advisor's performance of the complete Goldberg Variations at his recital was quite impressive. It seems he has been studying it for nearly 40 years, yet he is still striving for greater heights—truly dmirable. Under his rigorous lessons, it took me quite some time, but I believe I have finally reached a level where my performance is at least listenable.
The "Aria," which serves as the main theme of this set of variations, is originally written as AA'BB' in the original score. However, some performers play it as AB and move straight into the first variation.
Here, it is repeated and performed as in the score. However, the problem was how to distinguish between A and A', and B and B'. I tried a few things, but I think my advisor's suggestion is the best....
A: Hold back the viola part of the inner voice so that the main melody stands clear throughout.
A': make the inner voice "audible". And the octave movement of the bass in response.
B : Same as A
B': Let the bass be heard while balancing it with the melody. The part that responds to the inner voice's bass should also work together.
In the case of polyphony like this piece, the Pianoteq8 Pro, which is a physical sound library that allows adjustment of the sound of each note and the firmness of the hammers, was quite good, so we decided to use it. In fact, it took me quite a long time to compare these sound libraries.
Song title: Goldberg Varriations "ARIA"
Sound source: Modartt Pianoteq8 Pro
Audio file format: mp3 (Stream directly on your PC)
YouTube: Goldberg Variations "ARIA"(Piano)