BACH: The Goldberg Variations – Glenn Gould’s 1955 performance re-created in modern hi-res surround sound and hi-res binaural sound by Zenph – Sony Classical Multichannel SACD 88697-03350-2, 77:00 total, *****:
This has got to be one of the most exciting SACD releases yet! We already had a news item about Zenph Studios and now have a special feature article on them, but this is their first commercial release demonstrating exactly what their amazing “re-performance” process sounds like. Their unique and complex process takes any recorded piano performance – even a scratchy 1920s 78 rpm disc – carefully analyzes it and separates the musical attributes of pitch, note duration, velocity of key hits and releases, etc. from the surrounding noises. Then it encodes these attributes digitally so that the original performance can be replayed on a hi-res computer-controlled grand piano such as the Yamaha Disklavier Pro, and newly recorded in hi-res audio.The Zenph process follows on the super-player-piano processes best illustrated by the Welte Mignon rolls, which enable performances on modern grand pianos by great pianists and composers long dead. Except that the Welte recording and playback apparatus is a jungle of Rube Goldberg-ish mechanics and also generates some extraneous noise of its own. The Zenph process extracts only the exact piano performance from the original record or tape. The final result is compared simultaneously with the original so that detection of even the slightest discrepancy in timing can be heard by ear as a disturbing echo and corrected if needed.This original Gould recording caused the Canadian pianist to be hailed as a genius and showed a new way of playing Bach that left listeners awestruck. The Columbia LP quickly became one of the most revered piano recordings ever made and Gould became the most famous classical artist of the day. However, it was mono, the tape has some hiss, there was surface noise, and being entirely analog the speed consistency is not as solid as with today’s all-digital processes – and that is doubly important with the accurate reproduction of piano music. (Gould recorded it again in stereo in 1981 and that version is on a Sony Classical stereo-only SACD, but it doesn’t match the excitement of his 1955 original.)The Zenph reperformance in surround sound is a revelation with its clarity, depth, spatial spread of the notes heard and their naturalness. The first thing that will strike the listener will probably be the almost inhuman speed and yet complete accuracy of note-spinning that Gould accomplishes. It almost sounds like some sort of tape trickery. I don’t recall being as blown away by his digital dexterity listening to the original LP or even its initial CD reissue – perhaps because of the intervening distractions just mentioned. In addition to turning the grand piano into a sort of super harpsichord, Gould has a way of bringing out the various voices in Bach’s counterpoint in a manner that seems to spread them out and set them forward in a sort of 3D sonic similar to a pipe organist using different ranks of pipes in different physical locations to speak the various voices in a keyboard work. The 30 variations dazzle the listener with their inventiveness and variety; there is never the feeling of “oh, there’s that same darn tune again” which I normally have at some point listening to the Goldbergs.But now comes, for me, an even more exciting technical option on this disc – a repeat of the entire performance in true binaural sound for headphone listening! This is on tracks 33 thru 64 – as with the surround version, one track per variation. (Be sure to change your SACD Audio option from Multichannel to Two-Channel SACD or the additional tracks will fail to appear on an SACD player – the disc notes should have had a warning about this.)The dummy recording head by Neumann was placed not near the crook of the grand piano, as done with most binaural piano recordings, but on a stand at roughly the height of a pianist’s head while performing at the Disklavier keyboard. In other words, when we put on our headphones we are not only hearing Glenn Gould’s original performance; we are hearing it as if we were inside Gould’s head as he sits at the keyboard playing it! The treble end is clearly a couple feet to our right in front and the lowest bass is a couple feet away to our left in front. The accurate phase relationships preserved with the binaural method of recording recreates the spatiality around the headphone-wearing listener, and does it with only two channels, so that the recording can be delivered on the Stereo SACD layer of the disc as well as the 44.1 CD layer.
The difference acoustically between the two hi-res options could be described as rather similar to that between the “Audience” and “Stage” perspective choices which are being provided on some music DVDs. The binaural recording puts you much closer to the piano and able to discern both the spatial origin of the various note pitches and also provides a better feeling of the rich acoustics of the strings stretching away in front of you from the keyboard. From the introduction of both multichannel SACD and DVD-Audio I’ve suggested to recording engineers that a binaural option be recorded and offered in this way, and I’m so pleased to see that finally someone has done so and the results are so excellent!
