ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations
A Far Cry and pianist Simone Dinnerstein present a reimagining of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, expanding the iconic keyboard masterpiece into a dialogue for piano and string orchestra. Created by Criers Alex Fortes and Sarah Darling in collaboration with Dinnerstein, the arrangement draws out possibilities hidden within each variation—from trio-sonata textures and grand orchestral gestures to a jazz-inflected bass line and a sung chorale. First premiered in 2016, the arrangement you are hearing tonight has been newly reexamined and refreshed in anticipation of recording the work. Over the coming days, following tonight’s performance, A Far Cry and Dinnerstein will record the work at Mechanics Hall immortalizing this decade-long artistic collaboration for the forthcoming album.
There are a handful of works whose nicknames conjure emotions of intellectual wonder, visceral excitement, joyful adoration, and the comfort of an old friendship, like Tchaik 5, Hammerklavier, Winter Wind, and the Goldbergs. Memorably, the Goldberg Variations became culturally iconic in 1955, when a young, eccentric, Canadian pianist named Glenn Gould stepped into the recording studio and made a now legendary recording of the work (Pablo Casals did something similar for Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in 1936). Since then, they have been recorded hundreds of times. Far from being redundant, each new rendition recaptures the imagination with seemingly endless nooks and crannies for exploration. Like the dialogue of a fiercely witty movie, the interplay of relationships between the notes and variations reveal themselves on a deeper level with every listen—aptly described in an NPR article as a “Rubik’s Cube of invention and architecture.” There are even inside jokes, if you know them (and you will, by the end of this annotation).
Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen, “Aria with Diverse Variations,” was the original title for BWV 988. The nickname Goldberg comes from a story that might be apocryphal, but merits re-telling. It originated in 1802 with Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, who related an anecdote about Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, a virtuoso harpsichordist who studied with the Bach family:
The Count [Hermann Karl von Keyserling] was often sickly, and then had sleepless nights. At these times Goldberg, who lived in the house with him, had to pass the night in an adjoining room to play something when the Count could not sleep. The Count once said to Bach that he should like to have some clavier pieces for his Goldberg, which should be of such a soft and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them on his sleepless nights.
Thus, so the story goes, Bach wrote the Goldberg Variations.
More likely, Bach wrote the Goldbergs as the culmination to his Clavier-Übung (“Keyboard Exercise”), a collection of harpsichord and organ works published in four volumes from 1731-1741. Part I included the six Partitas, Part II consisted of the Italian Concerto and the Overture after the French Manner, Part III is a master compendium of organ works, and Part IV is the Goldberg Variations. As a whole, the Clavier-Übung traverses every style and skill set a keyboardist would need to know.
The opening theme in the Aria owes its harmonic underpinnings to one of Bach’s contemporaries whom he admired greatly: George Frideric Handel. A side-by-side comparison of Handel’s Chaconne with 62 Variations (HWV 442) reveals an identical bass line in the first eight bars of both works. One of the marvels of the Goldberg Variations is the elegant symmetry of its entire construction. The thirty variations are divided into two sections of fifteen: Nos. 1-15, and Nos. 16-30. Including the Aria that appears both at the outset and the conclusion, the Goldbergs consist of thirty- two parts total. This macrostructure is reflected in the microstructure of each variation, most of which are either 16 or 32 measures in length. There are only three minor key variations, the first being No. 15—the last variation of the first part. Variation No. 16 is marked “Overture” to herald the beginning of the second half. Every third variation is a canon at an increasing interval (i.e. No. 3 is a canon at the unison, No. 6 a canon at the second, No. 9 a canon at the third, etc.), up to a ninth in canon No. 27. Playing with our expectations, Bach chooses to skip a canon at the tenth in variation No. 30 and instead offers a Quodlibet (“what pleases”), which is a mashup of counterpoint and popular tunes. Here, toward the end of this lengthy musical journey, is where Bach’s sense of humor shows most prominently. With a knowing wink, the Quodlibet includes well-known songs from Bach’s day with the words, “I have been away so long from you” and “Cabbage and turnips have driven me away (had my mother cooked meat, I’d have opted to stay).”
After meandering through all the musical possibilities, staying almost entirely in the major mode and home key of G, the variations come to an end, and return home to the Aria once again.
Kathryn J. Allwine Bacasmot is a pianist/harpsichordist, musicologist, music and cultural critic, and freelance writer. A graduate of New England Conservatory, she writes program annotations for ensembles nationwide.
