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Just curious. Were the Goldberg Variations as popular before Gould? What recordings are available before his?

I do not think that they were as popular. Just considered difficult. Now I am not certain on this but the thing is we don't hear much about them before gould.

Wanda Landowski made a career playing the works of Bach including the Goldberg Variations. She predates Gould quite a bit. She also was a big proponent of utilizing the harpsichord as well.

A further thought:
One must remember that Bach's music was 'lost' for almost a 100 years. When Mendelssohn began the 'rediscovery' Bach was essentially unknown even in the towns he had lived. Also the period of 1830-1900 was awash with the contemporary composers writing very programatic works and art songs. The movement was towards bigger and flashier and the Bach works didn't really fit that bill. After WWI and funding for the arts and vast productions dropped so significantly, chamber music came into vogue once again and also the beginning seeds of the period performance movement were planted.

The Landowski recording used to be available and there were a few others. I don't recall reading/hearing about many on the wax cylinders or 78's so really we are talking about 1940's and later for 'modern' recordings. Heres a list that is not exhaustive by any means. It doesn't list the Hess for instance.

• Wanda Landowska - November 1933 Paris - EMI 5 67200 - ADD - harpsichord
• Claudio Arrau - January-March 1942 - RCA CD GD 87841 - piano
• Wanda Landowska - 1945 - New York City - RCA - harpsichord
• Glenn Gould - June 21, 1954 Toronto, from CBC broadcast - mono - piano
• Glenn Gould - June 10, 1955 New York - Sony Classical 52 594 - ADD - piano
  
  * One of the best-known and most highly regarded, performed on the piano by Gould as his eye-opening debut recording; Gould later came to criticize his early off-beat and lyrical interpretation, expressing reservations about its pianistic affectation, overt emotionalism, and lack of temporal unity.
• Glenn Gould - 1959 live at Salzburg Festival - Sony Classical 52685 - ADD - piano
• Ralph Kirkpatrick - 1959 Deutsche Grammophon 439 673-2 - ADD - harpsichord
• Helmut Walcha - June 1960-March 1961 - Hamburg - EMI 4 89166 - ADD - harpsichord
• Wilhelm Kempff - July 1969 Deutsche Grammophon 439 978-2 - ADD - piano
• Charles Rosen - July 1969 Sony SBK 48173 - ADD - piano
• Gustav Leonhardt - 1978 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi GD77149 - ADD - harpsichord
• Trevor Pinnock - 1980 Archiv Produktion 415 130-2 - ADD - harpsichord
• Glenn Gould - April/May 1981 New York - originally CBS Masterworks MK 37779, now Sony Classical 52619 - DDD - piano

* One of Gould's very few re-recorded pieces, this time a more classical, dignified and sober rendition, won two 1983 Grammy Awards for "best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra)" and "best classical album"

Thank you for the good list of Goldberg artists- I guess I would add Maria Yudina. I play them in April and need all the help I can get....

Kevin Bazzana says in his biography of Gould that the Goldbergs were largely considered unlistenable before Gould - something in the way of a dry and difficult technical exercise. There were performances on the piano before then, for instance Tureck played them and there is a famous recording by Arrau from the 20s or 30s. But if Bazzana is to be believed the set does owe its place in the repertoire to Gould to a large extent.

On the subject of Goldbergs, I just listened to the newer recording of Tureck (the one on DG) .. and I have to say I was very disappointed. This recording is highly overrated imo.
I do not doubt her mastery, in fact I like many of her recordings in the WTC but this one let me down.

She is way over-analytical, which leads to loss of the music. Thus the piece of music is converted to a huge jelly cloud of notes. And if you add the slow tempi which are almost the same in every variation thus destroying the contrast and character of each piece. I won't even call each variation a variation. She must call it 'similaration' or something. Add this to the repetition which also adds to the boredom.

Huge disappointment from one of my favorite Bach pianists

I was also disappointed by Landowska 1933 EMI recording.