Living & Arts

Guan tackles Goldberg Variations at senior recital

In print | November 19, 2009

Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk couldn’t sleep. There had been countless tricks for this age-old problem, but the Count tried a particularly elegant solution: He commissioned Bach to write a piece for his personal keyboardist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. The piece would later become known as the Goldberg Variations. “I don’t know if the Count actually got to sleep better,” said Karen Guan ’10, a music minor, who played the Goldberg Variations for her senior recital last Saturday. “I kind of doubt it, because they’re so consuming when you listen to them.”

The Goldberg Variations consist of 30 variations on a sarabande aria, and each variation is unique. Unusually, Guan played all of them from start to finish. According to Guan, the Goldberg Variations is “one of the most challenging pieces that a pianist can play,” requiring 50 minutes of uninterrupted playing.

“I don’t know if anyone has ever done anything like this,” said Guan’s piano teacher, Keiko Sato. “It’s quite an undertaking.” According to Guan, some were skeptical of her ability to perform the piece due to an injury she received from overplaying during her freshman year. But Guan knew that this was the piece she wanted to perform, despite the physical and technical difficulties. “I’ve loved this piece ever since I first heard it,” she said. “Each variation has a totally different character. The challenge is to get those characters to all flow into each other and to try to make them distinct because they’re all in G major.”

On the night of her performance, Guan was elegant and composed as she walked to the piano. Breathing deeply, she sat still on the piano bench for a few long moments before beginning the variations. Her whole upper body moved as she started playing the piano: lulling circles for quiet pieces, rapid pecks of the head for faster ones. The notes were clear and articulate; the music had grace and strength. “What I liked the most about the performance was that in the more intimate moments she created a really incredible space,” audience member Corey Silberstein ’12 said. “There were quieter passages and everyone was straining to listen because she grabbed everyone’s attention — which is an incredible thing to do in a big concert hall.” Silberstein had never heard anyone perform all of the Goldberg Variations before and added that he was “very moved.” Guan, whose father was once a professional violinist, has played the piano since she was seven years old.

“I was at daycare one day, and there was this little plastic keyboard,” Guan said. “A counselor helped me play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

Now a senior graduating this fall, Guan’s talent is evident. She took her culminating bows to three standing ovations from the crowd after her performance.

“She … overcame a lot, and she’s maintained her own voice through her music,” Sato said. “She’s a very strong person.”