Tatiana Nikolayeva - Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1992)
BAND/ARTIST: Tatiana Nikolayeva
- Title: Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
- Year Of Release: 1992
- Label: Hyperion
- Genre: Classical Piano
- Quality: flac lossless (tracks) +Booklet
- Total Time: 01:19:26
- Total Size: 250 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
01. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria
02. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 1. a 1 Clav.
03. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 2. a 1 Clav.
04. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 3. Canone all'Unisono a 1 Clav.
05. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 4. a 1 Clav.
06. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
07. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 6. Canone alla Seconda a 1 Clav.
08. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Al tempo di Giga
09. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 8. a 2 Clav.
10. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 9. Canone alla Terza a 1 Clav.
11. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 10. Fughetta a 1 Clav.
12. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 11. a 2 Clav.
13. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 12. a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quarta in moto contrario
14. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 13. a 2 Clav.
15. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 14. a 2 Clav.
16. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 15. Canone alla Quinta a 1 Clav. Andante
17. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 16. Ouverture a 1 Clav.
18. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 17. a 2 Clav.
19. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 18. Canone alla Sesta a 1 Clav.
20. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 19. a 1 Clav.
21. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 20. a 2 Clav.
22. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 21. Canone alla Settima
23. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 22. a 1 Clav. alla breve
24. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 23. a 2 Clav.
25. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 24. Canone all'Ottava a 1 Clav.
26. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 25. a 2 Clav. Adagio
27. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 26. a 2 Clav.
28. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 27. Canone alla Nona a 2 Clav.
29. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 28. a 2 Clav.
30. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
31. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet
32. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria da capo
The ‘Aria with diverse variations’, Bach’s own title for his unprecedented ‘Goldberg Variations’, was written in 1742 for (Count) Herman Karl von Kayserling (1696–1764), the Russian ambassador in Dresden. It was catalogued BWV988 by Wolfgang Schmieder and first published by Balthasar and Schmid in Nürnberg.
These variations became the fourth part of a keyboard grand design, Bach’s Klavierubüng. The collective title was borrowed from his Leipzig predecessor Johann Kuhnau and its remaining components comprised: part I, the six Partitas (1731); part II, including the ‘Italian Concerto’; and a third part (largely for organ) embracing the ‘St Anne’ Fugue and his ‘Giant’ Fugue based on the chorale ‘Wir glauben alle an einen Gott’.
Johann Sebastian was presented to the Count following a concert of 1736 at the organ of Frauenkirche in Dresden. Thereupon Kayserling helped appoint Bach as ‘composer to the Saxon Court’. The Count had also become mentor to Danzig teenage keyboard virtuoso Johann Gottlieb (Theophilus) Goldberg, a pupil of Bach’s eldest son, William Friedemann.
Bach’s biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel wrote the first exhaustive text on the composer (published 1802) and he describes circumstances in which the ‘Aria and 30 Variations’ were envisioned: ‘The Count once said to Bach that he should like to have some pieces for his Goldberg which should be of such soft and somewhat lively character that he might be cheered up by them in his sleepless nights.’ Forkel goes on to say that Kayserling was so impressed with the Variations that he rewarded Bach with a golden goblet containing 100 louis d’or.
Many academics contend from this that the work was commissioned. Others say the evidence is inconclusive. A contemporary document, ascribed to one Johann Elias Bach (1705–1755), a son of J S Bach’s eldest cousin, describes an event of 1741 at which the composer played the entire work while demonstrating a new harpsichord for Kayserling and a group of dinner guests.
His ‘Air and 30 Variations’ were still with the publisher, though, when the Count expressed conspicuous delight Bach assured him that the moment his manuscript became available Kayserling would certainly receive a copy; hardly a likely scenario if the work had been commissioned. There is certainly no formal dedication in the original edition.
Within J E Bach’s same account we also find doubts about authorship of the work’s richly ornate opening Aria. Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, supposedly played it at her harpsichord as Johann Sebastian taught at Saint Thomas. And sometime earlier he had jotted it down in his ‘Notenbüchlein’. The more indisputable wisdom suggests that this 32-bar sarabande appeared in Anna Magdalena’s own notebook as early as 1725. Whatever its origins, they have little bearing on the consequent nature of Bach’s Variations.
Of far greater importance is how the structural form and design of the entire work proceeds from this Aria, though not from the melody but its accompanying 32-bar bass and harmony. In fact the only change in harmony is from major to minor, variations in the latter mode strategically placed to heighten variety. Cadences in D major (bar 16), E minor (bar 24) and G major (bar 32) distinguish the tonal path of the theme, and emerge in all variations except for those in the tonic minor (Nos 15, 21 and 25). And here E flat major replaces E minor at bar 24.
The earliest extant variations appeared before the mid-sixteenth-century. Spanish composer Antonio de Cabezón (c1510–1566) elaborated on a originating theme in his ‘Obras’, while Englishman Hugh Ashton (d1522) was thought to be the composer of ‘My Lady Carey’s Dompe’, a set of variations on a ground bass. Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707) most probably wrote 32 variations titled ‘La Capricciosa’, taking as his Aria the song ‘Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben’.
This latter melody turns up in Bach’s Quodlibet (Variation 30), though the link may have occured by chance. It is interesting to speculate on how familiar Bach was with parallel works, but we have no compelling evidence to confirm that he knew the forward-looking Buxtehude creation.
In any event Bach’s monumental invention is arranged so that every third variation is a canonic one, ending with the Quodlibet based on two popular contemporary tunes. The first canon becomes Variation 3, the last Variation 27. In rounding off his structure Johann Sebastian may have recalled the annual Bach family reunions when quodlibets were frequently sung.
Between each third Variation comes a duet, usually extrovert in nature, and a three-part invention or fugue. It follows that the work has nine canons; the first composed on the minor and successive canons built on a larger interval. The two central canons, at the fourth and the fifth are inverted; the final canon, at the ninth, has its own bass and no third voice. Yet frequently the two canonic parts appear alongside a bass obligato and a three-voice variation results.
Intervening variations are contrapuntally complex though they share the same harmonic framework. Those preceding each canon are largely rapid toccatas. The non-canonic variations also include fughettas plus three and four-part passages. We therefore have a sequence of canons, three-part inventions or fugues and duets.
With their monothematic and wholly contrapuntal genesis, the ‘Goldberg Variations’ undoubtedly pave the way for Bach’s final keyboard works—the Musical Offering, ‘Von Himmel hoch’ Variations (BWV769) and The Art of Fugue.
Charles Rosen notes: ‘The elegance of the Goldberg Variations is its glory: it is the most worldly of Bach’s acheivements, with the Italian Concerto … essentially a creation of the comic spirit, it also contains some of the most moving passages that Bach ever wrote.’
During the 1930s Tovey had spoken of the Variations in fulsome and comparative terms: ‘Until Beethoven wrote his Waldstein Sonata’, he commented, ‘the (Goldberg) Variations were the most brilliant piece of sheer instrumental display extant. No other work by Bach himself, or by Domenico Scarlatti, not even any concerto by Mozart or any earlier work of Beethoven could compare with it for brilliance.’
The question of repeats has for long been the subject of lively debate. Similarly it has occasioned performances of widely-contrasting length and intellectually diverse standpoints. As LPs flourished, a need to discard many repeats became essential. The demand for single-disc releases (approximately 60 minutes playing time) was a powerful dictat. For performance purposes concert managements were wary of ninety-minute programmes without intermission.
There are those who contend that the truest diversity of the Goldberg Variations is only realized by observing all repeats as indicated textually througout the work. In most such performances repeats are performed with significant embellishments. Alternatively the articulation or dynamics may be varied with a new approach to structural relationships and expressive potentialities in each repeated variation...
01. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria
02. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 1. a 1 Clav.
03. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 2. a 1 Clav.
04. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 3. Canone all'Unisono a 1 Clav.
05. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 4. a 1 Clav.
06. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
07. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 6. Canone alla Seconda a 1 Clav.
08. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Al tempo di Giga
09. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 8. a 2 Clav.
10. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 9. Canone alla Terza a 1 Clav.
11. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 10. Fughetta a 1 Clav.
12. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 11. a 2 Clav.
13. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 12. a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quarta in moto contrario
14. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 13. a 2 Clav.
15. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 14. a 2 Clav.
16. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 15. Canone alla Quinta a 1 Clav. Andante
17. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 16. Ouverture a 1 Clav.
18. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 17. a 2 Clav.
19. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 18. Canone alla Sesta a 1 Clav.
20. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 19. a 1 Clav.
21. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 20. a 2 Clav.
22. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 21. Canone alla Settima
23. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 22. a 1 Clav. alla breve
24. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 23. a 2 Clav.
25. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 24. Canone all'Ottava a 1 Clav.
26. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 25. a 2 Clav. Adagio
27. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 26. a 2 Clav.
28. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 27. Canone alla Nona a 2 Clav.
29. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 28. a 2 Clav.
30. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.
31. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Var. 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet
32. J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria da capo
The ‘Aria with diverse variations’, Bach’s own title for his unprecedented ‘Goldberg Variations’, was written in 1742 for (Count) Herman Karl von Kayserling (1696–1764), the Russian ambassador in Dresden. It was catalogued BWV988 by Wolfgang Schmieder and first published by Balthasar and Schmid in Nürnberg.
These variations became the fourth part of a keyboard grand design, Bach’s Klavierubüng. The collective title was borrowed from his Leipzig predecessor Johann Kuhnau and its remaining components comprised: part I, the six Partitas (1731); part II, including the ‘Italian Concerto’; and a third part (largely for organ) embracing the ‘St Anne’ Fugue and his ‘Giant’ Fugue based on the chorale ‘Wir glauben alle an einen Gott’.
Johann Sebastian was presented to the Count following a concert of 1736 at the organ of Frauenkirche in Dresden. Thereupon Kayserling helped appoint Bach as ‘composer to the Saxon Court’. The Count had also become mentor to Danzig teenage keyboard virtuoso Johann Gottlieb (Theophilus) Goldberg, a pupil of Bach’s eldest son, William Friedemann.
Bach’s biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel wrote the first exhaustive text on the composer (published 1802) and he describes circumstances in which the ‘Aria and 30 Variations’ were envisioned: ‘The Count once said to Bach that he should like to have some pieces for his Goldberg which should be of such soft and somewhat lively character that he might be cheered up by them in his sleepless nights.’ Forkel goes on to say that Kayserling was so impressed with the Variations that he rewarded Bach with a golden goblet containing 100 louis d’or.
Many academics contend from this that the work was commissioned. Others say the evidence is inconclusive. A contemporary document, ascribed to one Johann Elias Bach (1705–1755), a son of J S Bach’s eldest cousin, describes an event of 1741 at which the composer played the entire work while demonstrating a new harpsichord for Kayserling and a group of dinner guests.
His ‘Air and 30 Variations’ were still with the publisher, though, when the Count expressed conspicuous delight Bach assured him that the moment his manuscript became available Kayserling would certainly receive a copy; hardly a likely scenario if the work had been commissioned. There is certainly no formal dedication in the original edition.
Within J E Bach’s same account we also find doubts about authorship of the work’s richly ornate opening Aria. Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, supposedly played it at her harpsichord as Johann Sebastian taught at Saint Thomas. And sometime earlier he had jotted it down in his ‘Notenbüchlein’. The more indisputable wisdom suggests that this 32-bar sarabande appeared in Anna Magdalena’s own notebook as early as 1725. Whatever its origins, they have little bearing on the consequent nature of Bach’s Variations.
Of far greater importance is how the structural form and design of the entire work proceeds from this Aria, though not from the melody but its accompanying 32-bar bass and harmony. In fact the only change in harmony is from major to minor, variations in the latter mode strategically placed to heighten variety. Cadences in D major (bar 16), E minor (bar 24) and G major (bar 32) distinguish the tonal path of the theme, and emerge in all variations except for those in the tonic minor (Nos 15, 21 and 25). And here E flat major replaces E minor at bar 24.
The earliest extant variations appeared before the mid-sixteenth-century. Spanish composer Antonio de Cabezón (c1510–1566) elaborated on a originating theme in his ‘Obras’, while Englishman Hugh Ashton (d1522) was thought to be the composer of ‘My Lady Carey’s Dompe’, a set of variations on a ground bass. Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707) most probably wrote 32 variations titled ‘La Capricciosa’, taking as his Aria the song ‘Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben’.
This latter melody turns up in Bach’s Quodlibet (Variation 30), though the link may have occured by chance. It is interesting to speculate on how familiar Bach was with parallel works, but we have no compelling evidence to confirm that he knew the forward-looking Buxtehude creation.
In any event Bach’s monumental invention is arranged so that every third variation is a canonic one, ending with the Quodlibet based on two popular contemporary tunes. The first canon becomes Variation 3, the last Variation 27. In rounding off his structure Johann Sebastian may have recalled the annual Bach family reunions when quodlibets were frequently sung.
Between each third Variation comes a duet, usually extrovert in nature, and a three-part invention or fugue. It follows that the work has nine canons; the first composed on the minor and successive canons built on a larger interval. The two central canons, at the fourth and the fifth are inverted; the final canon, at the ninth, has its own bass and no third voice. Yet frequently the two canonic parts appear alongside a bass obligato and a three-voice variation results.
Intervening variations are contrapuntally complex though they share the same harmonic framework. Those preceding each canon are largely rapid toccatas. The non-canonic variations also include fughettas plus three and four-part passages. We therefore have a sequence of canons, three-part inventions or fugues and duets.
With their monothematic and wholly contrapuntal genesis, the ‘Goldberg Variations’ undoubtedly pave the way for Bach’s final keyboard works—the Musical Offering, ‘Von Himmel hoch’ Variations (BWV769) and The Art of Fugue.
Charles Rosen notes: ‘The elegance of the Goldberg Variations is its glory: it is the most worldly of Bach’s acheivements, with the Italian Concerto … essentially a creation of the comic spirit, it also contains some of the most moving passages that Bach ever wrote.’
During the 1930s Tovey had spoken of the Variations in fulsome and comparative terms: ‘Until Beethoven wrote his Waldstein Sonata’, he commented, ‘the (Goldberg) Variations were the most brilliant piece of sheer instrumental display extant. No other work by Bach himself, or by Domenico Scarlatti, not even any concerto by Mozart or any earlier work of Beethoven could compare with it for brilliance.’
The question of repeats has for long been the subject of lively debate. Similarly it has occasioned performances of widely-contrasting length and intellectually diverse standpoints. As LPs flourished, a need to discard many repeats became essential. The demand for single-disc releases (approximately 60 minutes playing time) was a powerful dictat. For performance purposes concert managements were wary of ninety-minute programmes without intermission.
There are those who contend that the truest diversity of the Goldberg Variations is only realized by observing all repeats as indicated textually througout the work. In most such performances repeats are performed with significant embellishments. Alternatively the articulation or dynamics may be varied with a new approach to structural relationships and expressive potentialities in each repeated variation...
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