Editing Goldberg Variations (section)

=== Variatio 17. a 2 Clav. ===
{{listen|type=music|help=no|filename=Goldberg Variations 18 Variatio 17 a 2 Clav.ogg|title=Variatio 17 a 2 Clav|description=Performed by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka on piano}}
This variation is another two-part virtuosic toccata. [[Peter Williams (musicologist)|Peter Williams]] sees echoes of [[Antonio Vivaldi]] and [[Domenico Scarlatti]] here. Specified for two manuals, the piece features hand-crossing. It is in {{time signature|3|4}} time and usually played at a moderately fast tempo. [[Rosalyn Tureck]] is one of the very few performers who recorded slow interpretations of the piece. In making his 1981 re-recording of the ''Goldberg Variations'', Glenn Gould considered playing this variation at a slower tempo, in keeping with the tempo of the preceding variation (Variation 16), but ultimately decided not to because "Variation 17 is one of those rather skittish, slightly empty-headed collections of scales and arpeggios which Bach indulged when he wasn't writing sober and proper things like fugues and canons, and it just seemed to me that there wasn't enough substance to it to warrant such a methodical, deliberate, Germanic tempo."<ref name="Gould Page" />