Jonathan Ellis wrote:

>I was NOT implying that only a HIP version was correct (and
>if Patrik had read to the end of my posting he would have seen my
>recommendation for Hussong's remarkable version of the Goldberg on
>accordion - is that HIP?), but rather making a technical observation that
>Bach wrote the Goldberg's for two keyboards: the counterpoint is such
>that it is very difficult to play the work on one keyboard without making
>concessions.

Aside from the undisputed fact that a harpsichord has a sound completely
different from that of a piano, what exactly is the distinction between a
two-keyboard and a one-keyboard instrument when both are played by a person
w/ only two hands? I know that harpsichord keyboards are usually, if not
always, shorter than piano keyboards.  Is the second harpsichord keyboard
there to make up for the reduced range of each shorter keyboard? If not and
there is range overlap w/ some sort of difference in tone, are the
Variations written w/ a view to producing unisons of the same note sounding
in such different tones? If the two keyboards have separate ranges, are
some passages played simultaneously at either end of the low-to-high scale
as well as in the middle, which a pianist would only be able to play w/out
making concessions if he used his nose (as I understand the child Mozart
did w/ one of his compositions)?

Walter Meyer