Program Note

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.
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.

"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. " (Bruno Giuranna)