Goldberg

Jean-Sébastien Bach (1685-1750) : Variations Goldberg BWV 988

A genuine masterpiece inspires musicians to adopt, adapt, or transcribe it without losing any of its greatness. Nevermind's four baroque aces, Anna Besson, Louis Creac'h, Robin Pharo and Jean Rondeau, have taken a creative look at Bach's famous Goldberg Variations and have made their own stylishly insightful 'variations' on the work. As they themselves explain: 'We needed only an informal rehearsal to grasp the incredible potential of a transcription for our ensemble. There have been other arrangements, but nobody has ever attempted this one before now, even though our instruments are among those most typically used in J.S. Bach's chamber music, in his many solo sonatas for flute, violin or gamba with bass continuo and obbligato harpsichord - and they also frequently feature in the arias of his cantatas and Passions.'

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.”

Blandine Verlet a suivi les cours d'écriture, d'esthétique avec Marcel Beaufils, d'histoire de la musique avec Norbert Dufourcq et de clavecin avec Marcelle de Lacour au Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris. En 1963, elle a obtenu un Premier Prix de clavecin à l'unanimité et le Prix spécial du Concours International de Munich.

Bach’s music has always attracted arrangers and orchestrators – such as Stokowski, Elgar and Busoni, to name just three. Regardless of its original version, Bach’s music has an expressive power, drama and architectural logic that lend themselves well to expanded orchestral sonorities. Bassoonist and conductor Robin O’Neill buried his head in the Goldberg Variations, which he had discovered through Glenn Gould’s recordings, during the first months of the Covid lockdown. Soon after that, the idea of making an arrangement for orchestra began to obsess him as he began hearing instrumental and orchestral sonorities in the keyboard work. Since the main challenge was to reclothe the music without damaging the subtle intricacy of the piece, and after much thought and experimentation, O’Neill chose instruments that Bach himself would have recognized for the solo parts. His reinterpretation of the Goldberg Variations offers a mixture of full orchestral variations interspersed with concertante ones involving two, three or four solo instruments, at times close to St Matthew Passion-style writing. Completed during a difficult period, this arrangement was made, in the words of O’Neill, in the hope that it expresses the joy and solace that Bach’s music gives both performer and listener.

Following releases by cellist Guy Johnston and organist Richard Gowers, King’s College presents the latest album in its alumni series, Bach’s iconic ‘Goldberg Variations’ as arranged and performed by the harpist Parker Ramsay. Parker Ramsay’s artistry is distinguished by its breadth and crossing of instrumental boundaries and genres at the harp, organ and harpsichord. He was the first American to hold the post of Organ Scholar at King’s, following in a long line of prestigious predecessors, and as a harpist specializes in repertoire for early harps and new music for the modern pedal harp. The album is accompanied by extensive notes by leading Bach scholar Burkhard Schwalbach, Pulitzer Prize winning music critic Tim Page and Parker himself.

Die Goldberg-Variationen sind ein Werk Johann Sebastian Bachs (BWV 988), das im von Bach selbst veranlassten Erstdruck aus dem Jahr 1741 als Clavier Ubung bestehend in einer ARIA mit verschiedenen Verænderungen vors Clavicimbal mit 2 Manualen bezeichnet wurde. Die Benennung nach Johann Gottlieb Goldberg entstand posthum aufgrund einer Anekdote.

A new recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Goldberg Variations', performed by world-renowned musician, Malcom Archer on a harpsichord built by Alan Gotto.