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	Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Goldberg-Variationen / Goldberg Variations Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen vors Clavicimbals mit 2 Manualen, BWV 988 - Clavier-Übung, Part Four Version for String Trio by Bruno Giuranna world premiére recording label: Velut Luna CVLD170
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time: 77'27'' - tracks: 1-32
booklet languages: Italiano / English

Recording: Chiesa di Orsanmichele (Florence)
10 March 2008

In the splendid setting of the Church of Orsanmichele in Florence, during the thirty years since the founding of the Lions Club of Bagno a Ripoli (FI), on 11th March 2008 the Broz Trio has performed the transcription for string Trio of Bach's Goldberg Variations, in the unpublished transcription of the Master Bruno Giuranna.
With the live recording of the concert was made the first world incision of this version, that is available in the catalogue Velut Luna since the second half of June 2008.

	The Goldberg Variations

	text by Francesco Bissoli

The Air with 30 variations (BWV 988), composed by Bach around 1741, was dedicated to his student Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and published in Nuremberg by Balthasar Schmid. According to Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach’s first biographer, the Maestro wrote this work on commission from Count Hermann Carl von Keyserling, the Russian ambassador in Dresden and Goldberg’s patron, who wanted to listen to music during his long sleepless nights.
Aside from this little story, this is a speculative work and has a more academic bent, following the trend of the Kantor’s last works. It makes up the fourth part of the Klavierübung, and completes its overall formal structure. It uses a compositional process widely cultivated in the seventeenth century, developed and transformed into a progressive cycle of complete modifications of a self-sufficient musical cell, in which the protagonist is the canon. The contrapuntal dialogue is developed to the full – as it was to be in the Musical Offering and in the Art of Fugue - and is organized mathematically with precise symmetry and with unparalleled structural cohesion.
With the exception of the final variation, every third piece is a canon: No 3 is at the unison, No 6 at the second and so on up to the final canon at the ninth. Many variations, thanks to their rhythmic peculiarities, take on the style of a dance; others have a title that refers to a certain style or probably to a specific function within the sequence. This is the case, for example, of variation 10 (Fughetta) or 16 (Ouverture), which may suggest a macro partition of the work into two sections (variations 1-15 and 16-30) each half containing five groups of three pieces. It is also possible to see the work as having three sections if one takes into account the strong structural similarities between, for example, variations 12 and 24, and 13 and 25. This is not simply a mathematical game but an attempt at interpreting a complex, brilliantly-developed masterpiece that also lends itself to relaxed listening, without the need for any analytical thinking.
Although originally written for harpsichord, itself offering the most unimaginable expressive possibilities, the Goldberg Variations have been the subject of various transcriptions for different instrumental combinations. It is these that allow you to appreciate the thick contrapuntal texture of the composition perhaps more clearly than the keyboard version. If we consider that in past centuries transcriptions were common practice and that the same Bach transcribed numerous concertos by Vivaldi for organ, we can easily overlook the purists’ reservations and appreciate this creative approach to his work.

	Considerations on the string trio version

	text by Bruno Giuranna

The original music of the Variations seems to suggest right from the start that it was written for more than one player. It looks as though a piece of chamber music was simply transcribed or, in the case of the richer variations, compressed onto double staves for the harpsichord.
The vast majority of the variations are for two or three voices and the idea of assigning each part to a different instrument comes naturally from the music. The choice of violin, viola and cello seems to be the most appropriate, especially as the similarity in tone-quality of these instruments reflects the work’s original timbral unity.
In the two-part variations, the parts have been assigned according to the range and sound qualities of the instruments passing from one to another if necessary, but keeping the homogeneity of sound as much as possible. In the opening Aria and in Variations 22, 26, and 30, the fourth voice has been written for the violin and viola as double-stopping, taking into account the possible difficulty of such writing. The related problems in the last bars of the 23^rd Variation have been resolved by giving the violin scales in thirds and sixths.
The dialogue between the individual voices, which requires a certain amount of imagination and skill from a single harpsichord player or pianist, becomes more natural and spontaneous when each musical line is played by a different player. The interaction and tension which occurs between the musicians when they perform becomes, itself, an integral part of the interpretation and contributes significantly to the overall success of the performance.
From a performance practice point of view, the suggestion to divide the magnificent structure of the Goldberg Variations into three large sections, in which the variations flow into each other without breaks, helps to emphasise the works majestic dimensions.
This version, where fidelity to the original has always been the priority, has been created with the aim of making the wonderful world of the Goldberg Variations accessible to string players.
The full score and single parts are available at www.giuranna.com