1928-2017: Rudolf & Peter Serkin
Father and son, Rudolph and Peter Serkin both became prominent pianists and were associated with the Goldberg Variations. Rudolph Serkin’s 1928 performance was recorded on piano rolls and was later restored [linked]. Peter Serkin recorded a number of performances of the Variations, from early to late in his career [a performance from 2017 is linked].
1965: Gustav Leonardt
Leonhardt performed and conducted a variety of solo, chamber, orchestral, operatic, and choral music from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods. The many composers whose music he recorded as a harpsichordist, organist, clavichordist, fortepianist, chamber musician or conductor included Johann Sebastian Bach.
1955: Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould signed with Columbia Records’ classical music division in 1955 and recorded The Goldberg Variations, his breakthrough work. Although there was some controversy at Columbia about the appropriateness of this “debut” piece, the record received extraordinary praise and was among the best-selling classical music albums of its era.[wikipedia] Gould became closely associated with the piece, playing it in full or in part at many recitals.
1947: Rosalyn Tureck
Rosalyn Tureck was born in Chicago,_Illinois, the third of three daughters of Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel Tureck (né Turk; Rosalyn’s father was of Turkish descent) and Monya (Lipson) Tureck. She was the granddaughter of a cantor from Kiev. The first of her teachers to recognize her special gifts for playing the music of Bach was the Javanese-born Dutch…
1942: Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms.
This 1942 RCA studio recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, was remastered in 1988, after it had “sat in the vaults [of RCA] for 46 years. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.
1933: Wanda Landowska
The oldest available recording of the ‘Goldberg’ was made in Paris in 1933. Wanda Aleksandra Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.