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time:
77'27'' - tracks: 1-32
booklet languages: Italiano / English
Recording:
Chiesa
di
Orsanmichele (Florence)
10 March 2008
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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Goldberg Variations, in the unpublished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.
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The
Goldberg
Variations
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| text by Francesco Bissoli |
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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.
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Considerations
on
the
string trio version
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text by Bruno Giuranna
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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 23rd 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
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