Bach, J S: Goldberg Variations, BWV988

This recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations marks van Bloss’s first venture back into professional life since his retirement. Of his playing, Michael Haas says that “in polyphonic music, such as Bach, Nick offers a superhuman degree of precision and individuality with each voice, while never losing overall transparency,” and who feels that van Bloss’s Chopin and Rachmaninov are characterised by a “crystalline solidity” which enables him to build and shape works with total security and “achieve a nearperfect balance between vibrancy of keyboard playing and sweep of musical vision.”

In April 2009, van Bloss made a ‘comeback’ concert at London’s Cadogan Hall, playing a concerto by Bach and Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. The concert, uniformly reviewed as a ‘Triumph’ by London’s critics, attracted massive media interest from all over the world.

This CD includes two versions of the D minor Piano Concerto, one with the Concertgebouw in 1958 recorded in Salzburg, and one with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra recorded in Toronto in 1955. The Goldberg Variations were recorded in Salzburg in 1959.

Ten years ago Winter & Winter and the Uri Caine Ensemble produced an unconventional adaptation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Critics around the world highly recommended this unique production, which ran to more than 70 variations, based on how famous composers might have have arranged them and indeed, Uri’s unique take on Bach, aided and abetted by DJs and soul singers.

The Goldberg Variations are one of the milestones in the art of composition. All recordings are noted by critics and music lovers alike. Teodoro Anzellotti was aware of that when he started to record this almost simple waltz and Bach’s complex 30 variations. Originally written for harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and commissioned by the notoriously sleepless Duke Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk, Teodoro Anzellotti has 'adapted' this composition for accordion. For Winter & Winter Anzellotti has already recorded music by Domenico Scarlatti, Erik Satie, John Cage and others. Each album by Anzellotti opens a new sound pallette, regardless if he plays a new piece by Salvatore Sciarrino or a Baroque composition by Johann Jakob Froberger, gaining international recognition at the highest possible level. Here he gives Bach’s Goldberg Variations a new frisson. Give it a go!

Benjamin-Joseph Steen has played the clavichord which is heard on this recording since his youth. It is a copy by Joris Potvlieghe of the great 18th century models and Steens wanted to record the Goldberg Variations on this instrument. The work was written for a two manual harpsichord but the clavichord is thought to have been the preferred instrument of the Bach family.

Probably no great composer has been ‘arranged’ more often than Bach. Be it the C major Prelude from Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier which has another life as Gounod’s Ave Maria, or the jazz piano trio arrangements of Jacques Loussier of his keyboard concertos, his music shines through, and endures, reaching wider audiences. The Sitkovetsky arrangement of the Goldberg Variations (originally for harpsichord) ranks as one of the finest arrangements. It is the most recent in a long and honourable tradition that has seen Mozart arrange Bach’s fugues for string trio and quartet, and, indeed the great Johann Sebastian arrange Vivaldi’s concertos for keyboard.

Sitkovetsky’s arrangement treats all three instruments as different registers of a single instrument – all three are equal partners. Bach dedicated the ‘Aria’ ‘ to music lovers for the benefit of their souls’. This arrangement was certainly made in the spirit of Bach’s dedication.

The Canonic Variations on the Christmas chorale Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her were composed a few years later than the Goldberg Variations. The later work was composed for organ. Pieter Dirksen has published many baroque keyboard works and regularly presents masterclasses and lectures. His first solo CD on Etcetera, Bach’s Art of the Fugue (KTC1348) was much acclaimed.