Goldberg

The 19th-century reclamation of Bach’s music, spearhead by Mendelssohn and then Schumann, was later to be further developed most famously by Ferruccio Busoni. However, another key figure was composer and organist Joseph Rheinberger, whose arrangement for two pianos of the Goldberg Variations was made in the spring of 1883. Noting that the work had been ‘the object more of theoretical appreciation than musical performance’ Rheinberger sought to clarify its imitative polyphony and where he felt it necessary, added new parts of his own writing to the original score, to create a viable Bach-Rheinberger composition.

The Goldberg Variations is the fourth and final part of Bach’s Clavierübung which was in a way his keyboard method book. Published in 1742, the Goldberg Variations were commissioned by Count Von Keyserling who was the former Russian ambassador at the Saxon court. Legend says that this work was intended to calm the count’s sleepless nights. The count was said to have asked Bach to write several pieces that the young harpsichordist, whose name was Goldberg and who was the count’s protégé and Bach’s student, was to play each day as a sort of “neuro-musical therapy”. Thus the name of the work we know today.

Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations stand alone in the piano literature as a work of unique artistry and brilliance. Lang Lang first began exploring this masterpiece more than 20 years ago and presents this record as the outcome of a long personal and emotional journey. Marking a new stage in Lang Lang's artistic development, it is the project of a lifetime. Alongside a studio recording is a contrasting performance, a single take from a recital in Leipzig's iconic St Thomas Church, where Bach worked and is now buried. The heart of this project is the deluxe edition - a unique, word-first offering with simultaneous studio & live recording.