Goldberg Relocating Postcolonialism

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen, commonly known as the “Goldberg Variations”, is one of the best-known compositions of this master of masters. This fame is well deserved, for a number of reasons – some of which are not strictly musical.

“An ode to silence” is how harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has described Bach’s Goldberg Variations. “I feel they were written for silence, in the sense that they take the place of silence,” he says. “All Bach is there in the Goldberg Variations … all music is there … and I will no doubt spend my life working on them.” To prepare his interpretation he consulted an original printed edition of the work, containing Bach’s own markings and corrections. “Through delving into this precious musicological source, I was able to make what I felt to be the most authentic choices.” Rondeau performs the set of variations in its complete form, with the indicated repeats and with judicious insertion of moments of silence.

“An ode to silence” is how harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has described Bach’s Goldberg Variations. “I feel they were written for silence, in the sense that they take the place of silence,” he says.

It was with his acclaimed Chopin recordings that Pietro De Maria established his reputation, and the Polish composer makes up the bulk of his discography. Of late, he has turned his attention to Bach, and over the last two years has taken both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier into the studio (review ~ review). I was fortunate enough to review them, and each made a profound impression. He remains with Bach for his latest release, and what better follow-up than the Goldberg Variations.

For her second Warner Classics release, young Italian pianist Beatrice Rana turns to a pinnacle of the solo keyboard repertoire and a composer she has described as “my first love”: Johann Sebastian Bach. Her interpretation of his epic Goldberg Variations bears out Le Monde’s judgement that “Beatrice Rana certainly has nothing left to prove when it comes to technique, but what makes an impression are her calm maturity and her sense of architecture,” and Gramophone’s that she is “a fully developed artist of a stature that belies her tender years.” Bach was the composer who most obsessed Beatrice Rana as a child, and in a recent interview with Pianist magazine, she confessed that it would be his music, and above all the Goldberg Variations, that she would choose if she had to devote her life to a single composer. As she said: “I’m very happy to be going back to Bach … It’s best to avoid Bach in competitions … you can’t expose yourself to be totally killed by the jury! But Bach is my first love; now I am allowed to play it in public and I’m really looking forward to that.”

“Although it is certainly part of a performer’s task both to nurture a special relationship with a work and to give the public a chance to enjoy it, the first thing that you need to do is to separate the work from its history.”

Der Schweizer Pianist Oliver Schnyder ist seit dem Gewinn des Grossen Preises beim Pembaur Wettbewerb in Bern und seinen Debüts im Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. sowie beim Tonhalle-Orchester regelmässig in den bedeutenden Konzertsälen Europas, Nordamerikas und Asiens zu Gast.

Der Schweizer Pianist Oliver Schnyder ist seit dem Gewinn des Grossen Preises beim Pembaur Wettbewerb in Bern und seinen Debüts im Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. sowie beim Tonhalle-Orchester regelmässig in den bedeutenden Konzertsälen Europas, Nordamerikas und Asiens zu Gast.