Johann Sebastian Bach and the musical sleeping pill of Count Keyserling
Goldberg Variations were written 275 years ago
Aria with Variations -BWV988 write in 1741 by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Originally published for harpsichords in 1741, the Goldberg Variations represent a phenomenal achievement in the history of music for its sheer complexity and melodic richness and is a masterpiece ranking amongst today’s most played and celebrated musical works. To date there are over two hundred recorded versions of the Variations.
The Goldberg Variations were the last installment of a four-part suite of keyboard practices called “Clavier Übungen” and marked the end of Bach’s keyboard-writing explorations. The Goldberg Variations, which were published during Bach’s lifetime, were and remained the 18th century’s largest compositional output for harpsichords / piano.
Subsequently, Bach who had entered the last decade of his life sat himself to create even more ambitious and experimental works such as the Canonic Variations or the Art of Fugue that still influence the development of music nowadays.
The circumstances surrounding the actual creation of the Goldberg Variations are rather speculative. A 19th century biographer of Bach, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, reported that Bach wrote them for the Count Keyserling who suffered from insomnia and who had hired a fourteen year-old boy, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to play for him during his sleepless nights. Bach happened to be the music teacher of the young Goldberg and was requested by the Count to write some harpsichords pieces for Goldberg to play whenever he could not sleep and produced the Variations based on this request.
Although there are no tangible evidences to corroborate this story, the fact is that Bach produced with the Goldberg Variations a masterpiece more relevant than ever 275 years after it was created.
At the center of this work is an Aria, which in the 18th century context represented a slow piece of instrumental music used for dancing and for variations. Deriving from this Aria are thirty Variations, which are all played based on the bass line of the Aria and not its melody.
You will find below a sample of Arias played by different artists. There are many excellent versions of the Goldberg Variations available. It is all a matter of perspective and therefore highly subjective.
Rosalyn Tureck (1914–2003)
Rosalyn Tureck was once called “the high priestess of Bach” owing to her lifelong dedication to the German composer as performer and scholar.
A towering figure, her 1998 interpretation of the Goldberg Variations at age eighty-five is a classic Bach interpretation, controlled and rigorous, yet tender, expressive and full of dignity.
Glenn Gould (1932–1982)
These are two important performances.
The 1955 recording was the first recorded album of Glenn Gould who was propelled to fame overnight with an incandescent rendition of the Goldberg Variations.
Not only did this album give Bach and his work instant exposure to a new and wider audience, but also it helped redefine the interpretation of classical music. Since, this iconic version has not stopped inspiring new generations of Bach lovers.
Gould, who was hugely influenced by Rosalyn Tureck to his own admission, had stretched the sense of clarity in Bach’s music developed by Tureck with new tonal textures, dynamics and speed. In this version, Glenn Gould and Bach are almost one and this can be heard.
In 1981, Glenn Gould recorded another studio version of the Goldberg Variations a few months before passing away.
This second studio recording is far less explosive than the 1955 version. Gould delivers a more introspective and melancholic performance, which yet remains very emotional. This was Glenn Gould last recording and it shines when it gets played
