Performed for this concert in a transcription for String Trio written in the 1980s by violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky after hi discovery of Glenn Gould recording, Bach’s Goldberg Variations belong to the composer’s greatest works for keyboards.

A masterpiece exploring all the degrees of an expressive “scale”, from the strongest austerity to erudite variations, through eccentric toccatas or the infinitely colorful landscapes of the Well-Tempered Clavier’s pieces. The Goldberg Variations, or “Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen” (Aria with diverse variations), according to the original title, could be the work that condenses Bach’s entire art: a free form, a concentration of harmony, digital volutes are forming a décor hosting a spiritual message of an unparalleled depth.

They are the fourth volume of a collection untitled Clavierübung (keyboard practice) or a set of pieces “composed for connoisseurs, for the refreshment of their spirits, by Johann Sebastian Bach” – as specified by the composer himself. In spite of the title, it would seem Bach had not educational intentions.

He would rather offer a simple “refreshment of the spirit”. As for the “connoisseurs”, the word should be treated with caution, given the complexity of these Goldberg Variations. The first Aria is followed by thirty variations, declining all the typical forms of Baroque style: fugue, trio sonata, French overture, gigue… The work’s poetic feature and its fascinating rich landscapes certainly prefigure works such as Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, or even Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations.

As the legend going about a man dressed in black who would have visited Mozart a few weeks before his death to commission him a Requiem, the one about Bach who supposedly composed his Goldberg Variations for an aristocrat, to distract them from their insomnias, is a bit far-fetched. We owe this legend to organist Johann Nikolaus Forkel who wrote in 1802 Bach’s very first biography, Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work).