Aria mit 30 Veranderungen BWV988 “Goldberg-Variationen”
(Clavierubung Teil IV) Revidierte Fassung
Released 1977 by EMI Electrola iC 15130 710/11 (also released without BWV 1087 in 1989 by EMI Electrola compact disc CDM 7 63062 2).
Alan Curtis, Cembalo, * Arthur Haas, Cembalo
1. Cembalo (“Goldberg-Variationen”) von Christian Zell fecit 1728 a Hamburg. in Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
2. Cembalo (Kanons BWV 1087) von Martin Skowroneck (2-manualig, barocke Disposition) aus dem Besitz von Hans Joachim Sieber
Produzent Gerd Berg
Tonmeisler Johann-Nikolaus Matthes
Titelseite:Heinrich Fuger “Selbstbildnis mit Bruder Gottlieb Christian Fuger” Miniatur auf Elfenbein, um 1769, Archiv fur Kunst und Geschlchte, Berlin
Foto Rückseite : Blume, Hamburg
Seite 1
00:00 Aria 3’49
03:39 Var. 1 a 1 Clav. 2’25
06:00 Var. 2 a 1 Clav. 1’55
07:52 Var. 3 Canone all’Unisono a 1 Clav. 2’08
09:57 Var. 4 a 1 Clav. 1’19
11:12 Var. 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. 1’43
12:52 Var. 6 Canone alla Seconda a 1 Clav. 1’31
14:21 Var. 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. 1’36
Seite 2
15:55 Var. 08 a 2 Clav. 1’14
17:06 Var. 09 Canone alla Terza a 1 Clav. 1’44
18:48 Var. 10 Fughetta a 1 Clav. 2’00
20:44 Var. 11 a 2 Clav. 2’29
23:07 Var. 12 Canone alla Quarta 2’49
25:52 Var. 13 a 2 Clav. 4’32
30:15 Var. 14 a 2 Clav. 2’29
32:40 Var. 15 Canone alla Quinta a 1 Clav. 3’31
Seite 3
36:06 Var. 16 Ouverture a 1 Clav.3’14
39:15 Var. 17 a 2 Clav. 2’08
41:18 Var. 18 Canone alia Sexta a 1 Clav. 1’45
43:01 Var. 19 a 1 Clav. 1’32
44:30 Var. 20 a 2 Clav. 2’10
46:36 Var. 21 Canone alia Settima 2’38
49:10 Var. 22 a 1 Clav. (Alia breve) 1’41
50:47 Var. 23 a 2 Clav. 2’30
53:13 Var. 24 Canone all’ottava a 1 Clav. 3’03
56:10 Var. 25 a 2 Clav. 5’47
Seite 4
1:01:47 Var. 26 a 2 Clav. 2’20
1:04:04 Var. 27 Canone alla Nona a 1 Clav. 2’10
1:06:11 Var. 28 a 2 Clav. 2’45
1:08:51 Var. 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. 2’10
1:10:00 Var. 30 Quodlibet a 1 Clav. 2’01
1:11:57 Aria 2’02
1:14:01 14 Kanons BWV 1087* uber die ersten 8 Fundamentalnoten der Aria aus den GoldbergVariationen in der Einrichtung von Christoph Wolff
Count Kaiserling asked Bach to compose for
his pupil Goldberg, in the Count’s employ,
some harpsichord pieces “which should be of
such a soft and somewhat lively character that
he might be a little cheered up by them in his
sleepless nights,” and the rest of the story is
well-known to Bach lovers through the account
in J.N. Forkel’s biography However, in these
days of music therapy and audial sedation we
tend to forget that the Count, in typical 18thcentury
fashion, did not ask for music to put him
to sleep, but rather to keep him “aufgeheitert.”
We have also tended to simply overlook
Forkel’s last sentence in his account: ” … in
the engraved edition of these variations, there
are some significant errors, which the author
has carefully corrected in his copy.”
What did Forkel mean, and what are the ‘ ‘significant
errors”? Prof. Christoph Wolff of Harvard
University discovered the answer in February
1975 when he brought to light in a private
collection in Strasbourg Bach’s own Handexemplar
of the Aria mit 30 Veränderungen.
The autograph corrections in this copy fall into
three categories: emendation of printing errors,
supplemental details (such as tempo mlarkings,
articulation marks”ornament symbols), and
changes which are clearly afterthoughts.
Even the first category yields some surprises:
no one in the past two centuries had thought to
correct the first C natural in the 17th bar of
Variation 17 to C sharp, nor to move the faulty
appoggiatura in bar 23 of Variation 23 to the
following note.
The second category settles
once and for all such controversies as to
whether Variation 7 should be like a Gigue or
a Siciliana (he adds “al tempo di Giga”) and
whether the ornamentation of the Fughetta
subject should be made consistent (it is). Into
the final category fall several surprising and
felicitous ornaments, especially those 22
appoggiaturas and mordents he added to mostly
the second beats in Variation 26, quite transforming
its character.
#ChristianZell #MartinSkowroneck #AlanCurtis #ArthurHaas