Goldberg

Die Goldberg-Variationen, das wohl bekannteste Werk für Tasteninstrumente von Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), stellen einen Höhepunkt barocker Variationskunst dar. Über eine kunstvoll verzierte barocke Arie entfaltet Bach ein Wunderwerk von 30 Variationen - heitere und besinnliche, kantable und fugierte, tänzerische sowie virtuose.

The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work. The story of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel: (For this work) we have to thank the instigation of the former Russian ambassador to the electoral court of Saxony, Count Kaiserling, who often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia.

Camerata RCO performs the classical Bach Goldberg Variations which are arranged by Soviet-Russian born orchestrator-arranger Dmitry Sitkovetsky. The Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work written for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations, after which the aria is repeated. These important examples of the variations are named after Johan Gottlieb Goldberg, who may have been the first performer of the published work in 1741. The performers consisting of Annebeth Webb (violin), Jeroen Woudstra (viola) and Honorine Schaeffer (violoncello) are members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

In 1810, on the well-known journal Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, a satirical writing by E. Th. A. Hoffmann portrayed a somewhat less-than-successful piano recital, as narrated by the pianist himself. He was asked to play Bach’s Goldberg Variations by somebody who perhaps knew them by name, but was certainly not acquainted with the work itself.

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.”

The touch and musicianship of the Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz is amply attested by a substantial catalogue of Brilliant Classics and Piano Classics albums stretching from Mozart to Bartók. This recording turns to a pillar of the keyboard repertoire, the variation set composed by J. S. Bach in 1741 as the fourth and final volume of his compendious Clavier-Übung project.

Sungyun Cho (South Korea) studied organ in Seoul. In 2005 she came to the The Hague Royal Conservatory in for her master degree with Jacques Ogg. She regularly performs with Dutch orchestras and also in her home country as soloist and continuo-player.

Sony Classical has the honor to present a set of recordings plate of one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Concert career began in the fifth year of life. In 1913, he undertook formal musical studies at the Conservatory in Berlin Stern (Stern 'sches Conservatory), in the class of Martin Krause. After graduating from high school in 1918, he took the first tour of Europe. He returned to America in 1921, giving a series of concerts in Argentina and Chile. After a concert in 1923 in the New York debut in international music circles with great success. Two years later, he was offered a job at the Berlin Conservatory as a teacher of piano playing. Seal of newly acquired fame was the first prize at the International Competition for Musical Performances, awarded to him in Geneva in 1927. In 1940 he left Germany and reemigrował to Santiago. He founded the private school for pianists, of which he was director. However, a year later he renounced this function and moved to New York, where he settled permanently.