Johann Sebastian Bach - Goldberg-Variationen, BWV 988

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750)
Goldberg-Variationen BWV 988


Silke Strauf & Claas Harders - Viola da gamba
Seven-string bass viols (after Michel Colichon, Paris 1689) by Henner Harders, Bremen 1994


Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavierübung, the so-called Goldberg Variations, appeared in 1742 as an undoubtedly unusual commission: it was requested of Bach by the former Russian envoy to the Saxon court, Hermann Carl Count von Keyserlingk, in the hope “that he could be cheered up a bit by them during his sleepless nights.” They were to be played – from the adjoining room – by a virtuoso, only just fourteen years old, by the name of Johann Gottlieb Theophilus Goldberg, who through Keyserlingk’s intercession had already had several lessons with Bach. Bach complied with the count’s wishes and composed for the young harpsichordist, of whom he thought highly, a series of thirty variations on an aria.

The interesting arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for two viols continues the series of already existing transcriptions of the work for other instruments. Basically, the part for the harpsichordist’s left hand is given to one of the viols, the part for the right hand to the other on this sonorous recording, the performers switch roles after nearly each variation. It is wonderful to follow the intricates paths of the two voices.