May, 05
International Piano Magazine
  • CD Goldberg Variations (Claves Records)

 

(...) Pescia plays the work without any repeats, and concieve it firmly as a cycle, within which some variations are grouped together and other consciously isolated. Naturally one cannot avoid comparison with Glenn Gould, who also made this work his first studio recording, and there are some similarities in terms of the rhythmic springiness given to certain passages. However, in Pescia´s case this even proceed as far as a few un-Gouldian notes inégale. Pescia is suitably crisp in his articulation and ornementation and he is a fine contrapuntal guide, with the voices nicely distinct. His tonal palette is wide and  he uses the full resources of the piano, not a million miles from Rosalyn Tureck´s approach. Like Tureck, too, he does not shrink from an incisive forte sound, which is welcome in a work that, whatever its origins in diversions from insomnia, cannot afford to continually pad about in stockinged feet if its proper emotional range is to become apparent.

Pescia´s reading is very much that of a young man sharing the excitement of discovery and fresh insight, and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. He plays with imagination, a crucial quality in any Bach player and is sensitive to the work´s humanity. He is recorded extremly well in La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the acoustic particularly suits the piano.
John Kersey