Hee-Kyung Juhn is on the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and her concert career has taken her to Europe, South America, and Asia, in addition to performances in the United States. She has performed Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations at the university's Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall to considerable acclaim, and while the classical record industry seems to produce no shortage of Goldberg's, Juhn's is definitely a very good one to experience. Juhn's approach is cool in passages of slow to moderate tempo, even a bit cooler than
Glenn Gould's famous interpretations -- her ornaments are understated and sense of touch is balanced and disciplined. In faster ones, Juhn is impressively fleet of finger, exhibiting dexterity well beyond the call of duty yet maintaining control of Bach's torrents of notes without being tangled up. The two Bach/Busoni transcriptions chosen to fill out the album illustrate Juhn's strengths; she is marvelously quick and light in Nun freut euch, lieben Christen, yet restrained and calm in Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme.
It is indisputable that the classical record market is overwhelmed with Goldbergs, and some listeners attuned to harpsichord performances will not even consider listening to them played on the piano. However, in this case it is useful to set aside what the work is and just listen to what Juhn is doing as a pianist; her even, controlled, and yet variable-in-the-right-places interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations is certainly great piano playing and deserves to be heard.