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Bach: Goldberg Variations

11/8/2011, 32 Tracks, 1:30:14

Featuring

  • Fretwork
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

For J. S. Bach, the entire art of composition was synonymous with variation, reordering, and complementing existing musical material.

Source: Booklet

Performer Biography

Fretwork, the viol consort on this recording, has been praised as 'the finest viol consort on the planet' by The London Evening Standard.

Source: Booklet

Composition History

J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations were composed around 1741, possibly for Count Keyserlingk, a distinguished insomniac, to be played by his court harpsichordist, Goldberg, during the night.

Source: Booklet

Compositional Technique

The Goldberg Variations conclude with a Quodlibet, a piece combining fragments from folk melodies, specifically 'Cabbage and beets have driven me away' and 'I have for so long been away from you'.

Source: Booklet

Interpretation

This recording features an arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations for a consort of six viols, which clarifies the contrapuntal nature of the canons, Fughetta, Alla breve, and Quodlibet.

Source: Booklet

Recording & Production

This recording was made in March 2011 at Orford Church, Suffolk, England, with Nicholas Parker as Sessions Producer, Recording Engineer, and Editor.

Source: Booklet

Composer Biography

The 'Aria' that introduces and concludes the Goldberg Variations was popular in the Bach household, as Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena, added it to one of her famous music-books in the 1740s.

Source: Booklet

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