The story has it that the Goldberg Variations were written for the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727–1756), who entertained the long white nights of Count Hermann Karl von Keyserling (1697–1764), the Russian ambassador to Saxony. Bach was well paid for his efforts, receiving a golden chalice filled with a hundred gold louis d’ors (which would be worth about 40,000 Euros today).

J.S. Bach

Count Keyserling loved what he called ‘his variations’. In the work, Bach explored the musical possibilities of ‘a cycle of thirty characteristic variations for a two-manual harpsichord, prefaced and followed by an aria whose bass line he also used as the basis for the variations’. The work was first published in 1741, and in the succeeding centuries has remained a solid core of Bachiana.

The first alternate version of the work was arranged by Carl Czerny for piano. Other arrangements followed: for two pianos, organ, string trio, and even orchestra. Wilder versions, such as for accordion, guitar, saxophone quartet, and other line-ups, followed, including its use as a base for improvisation by jazz musicians, have all helped keep the music in the public ear.

J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 – I. Aria

This new recording on Animal Music has its basis in an arrangement by the Czech composer Tomáš Ille (b. 1971). Originally written for violin, French horn, bassoon, and guitar, on commission for the Dvořák Prague Festival in Prague, the orchestration has been slightly altered for this recording. The guitar part is now played on marimba, and the bassoon has been replaced by a bass clarinet.

The players are violinist Dalibor Karvay, until recently concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; hornist and conductor Radek Baborák; bass clarinettist Petr Valášek, a member of Clarinet Factory; and are joined by internationally renowned vibraphonist Andrei Puškarev, a composer and arranger and a long-standing member of Gidon Kremer’s chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica.

Dalibor Karvay

Radek Baborák

Petr Valášek

Andrei Puškarev

Puškarev, Valášek, Baborák & Karvay

Radek Baborák describes the work much as Goethe described the string quartet: ‘the Goldberg Variations resemble a conversation between four friends who are discussing one central theme. Figuratively speaking, they approach it from the perspectives of the individual instruments and their particular characteristics. At points, they stand in sharp contrast to one another, while at other points, they seem to have come to an agreement. There are passages where all the instruments, apart from one, stop playing, as if to hear out what that single voice has to say. At other moments, they all sing along, happily citing folk songs together’.

J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 – XVII. Variatio 16. Ouverture

The work has become something more than a piece that tinkles along in one’s antechamber as yet another sleepless night comes and passes interminably. In this version for mixed ensemble, it seems to become more of a thought piece. A work to play as you ponder a difficult thought, or remember the past, or think of what you’re going to do in the future. With its orchestration, it’s no longer a piece for the background, but a piece that intermittently captures your attention: what is that violin doing? What did the horn just play? Can you hear what the bass clarinet is up to? The marimba stays mostly in the background, but still has moments when it moves to the foreground. You could imagine this music as the accompaniment for an animation – a long abstract form of Fantasia, perhaps. As a work to lull you through a long night, however, it no longer will serve that purpose.

It’s a work for the new century and will make you hear the Variations as something other than music to put you to sleep. It’s music for thought, music for consideration, music that engages your interest and then switches to something else – sort of an audible version of flicking through your social media, but with a better result!

J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, arranged by Tomáš Ille
Radek Baborák, French horn; Dalibor Karvay, violin; Andrei Puškarev, marimba; Petr Valášek, bass clarinet
Animal Music ANI 146-2 CD
Release date: 24 April 2026

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