Program
Johann Sebastian Bach
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria
Goldberg Variations: Aria
In 1741, Johann Sebastian Bach published a complex, intricate, and mesmerizing keyboard piece that would become known as the Goldberg Variations. Named after one of Bach’s pupils, who is purported to have played the variations to lull his noble employer to sleep, the Goldberg Variations begins with a simple, delicately ornamented aria that inspires thirty inventive melodic, harmonic, and contrapuntal variations. The opening aria is an elaboration on the Sarabande ground bass, which is then reimagined and reshaped through different meters, melodic and harmonic stresses, and contrapuntal filigree.
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Goldberg Variations: No. 3 (Canone all’Unisono)
The third variation is the first of the nine canons that form the through-line for the Goldberg Variations. A canone all’unisono (canon in unison), the variation includes features a supported, ground bass built around…
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Goldbergs Transformed
Goldberg Variations: No. 5
The fifth variation sees the basic melody of the 32-measure aria reimagined through rapid sixteenth notes and punctuated by frequent, unpredictable hand-crossing from the lower to the higher registers—and back again!—of the keyboard and back!
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