Goldberg Variations SAC

By Yong-Won Sung

Monthly Review KR, December 2023

For the final performance of the Seoul Arts Center’s 30th Anniversary Special Concert in the main hall, pianist HieYon Choi took the stage to perform Bach’s *Goldberg Variations, BWV 988*, a monumental work often hailed as the greatest variation piece in the history of music and one of the most expansive compositions ever written for keyboard, with a performance time nearing 1 hour and 20 minutes.

From the opening Aria, which marks the first step of this grand journey, her playing was nothing short of reverent and luminous. The pianissimo tone was rich in Romantic sentiment. But that was just the beginning. The real plunge—into boundless solitude and sorrow—would come an hour later, with Variation 25 under Choi’s hands.

With Bach, the beginning is always the hardest. Finding the right center of gravity, ensuring the interplay between voices remains balanced, and establishing a stable launch point for the multi-layered structure all depend on how one initiates the journey. In the first variation, a two-part invention, Choi struggled most with balance. The hand crossings weren’t aligned, and though the lively polonaise had long phrases followed by brisk, short notes, some of the details blurred. Entering Variation 3, a canon at the unison, the prior restlessness settled (following a transition in Variation 2). The inner voices—G and A octaves—came through clearly, and the left hand gained clarity and articulation.

By Variation 5, an arabesque, her hand crossings were strikingly clear, and accented bass notes highlighted the theme much more distinctly than in the first. The hand crossings intensified as the piece progressed, but by Variation 11, her execution had grown far more secure, and in Variation 14, the dazzling hand crossings were executed with such brilliance they drew gasps—but by then, they posed no challenge for Choi…..

……Variation 25 was the highlight of the day—her personal best—a culmination of Bach’s uniquely Romantic (paradoxical though that may sound) and deeply sentimental writing. Alongside the first variation and the final Aria, this was where Choi’s lyricism truly blossomed. The sighing motifs, the exquisite chromaticism, the constantly shifting modulations and the subtle changes in color were handled with seasoned clarity. Her mature artistry shone especially in the complex middle section in E-flat minor, which she unraveled with patience and poise.

Then came the sprint of Variation 26, the canon in ninths of Variation 27 (bringing to mind counterpoint classes from her student days), the trills of Variation 28, and the harmonies of Variation 29—by then, the music was no longer purely Baroque, but foreshadowing the Classical era, even glimpses of Beethoven…..