00:00:00 BWV 988 Aria mit 30 Veränderungen ‘Goldberg-Variationen” Recorded January 15-24; March 19, 1954
01:23:35 BWV 989 Aria variata alla maniera Italiana. Recorded March13, 15, 29-30, 1954
01:42:12 BWV 991 Air mit Variationen in c moll. Recorded March 31, 1954

The first of GV on the harpsichord with all of the repeats observed.
Released by Philips 1955, re-issued in 1976 by Philips in two boxes of 10 LPs: 6747053/4.
Enhanced for stereo from original mono recording

“Goldberg” Variations
Goldberg was a famous pupil of Bach and a great harpsichord player. In 1742 his patron, Count von Keyserling, commissioned
Bach to write so me diverting harpsichord pieces for Goldberg to play during the sleepless nights which the Count suffered, and an
air with 30 variations, the so-ca lied “Goldberg” Variations, was the result. They were published the same year as the fourth part of the
“Klavierübung,” the volumes which were called simply “Keyboard Exercise” but which included such works as the partitas. Among
keyboard variation works only Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations have been as large in conception or scope as the “Goldberg”
Variations, or as brilliantly worked out. Bach’s theme in G major in sarabande style is more asolid, harmonic base than a great melody but the composer’s inventiveness wrought much that is of thematic interest through the succeeding variations. The theme is 32 bars long, divided regularly into two 16-bar sections. The end of the first section is a cadence marking the point where the contrapuntal lines are inverted or the hands swop parts. The sectional mid-points at the eighth and twenty-fourth bars also usually mark a new direction in the variation. After the air has been played through – Isolde Ahlgrimm observes the repeats of both 16-bar sections in the air and in each variation – the first variation moves immediately away from the mood, but not the harmonic basis, of the stately theme in a brilliant instrumental duet between the right hand and the left. This variation is a model for other duet variations which recur usually before the canons in the work. The second, smoother variation has two upper parts in dialogue over a contrasting bass figure in a trio structure which frequently returns later. Already the necessity more than just the advantage of the two-keyboard instrument required by Bach for this .work is shown in the complex crossing of parts. The third variation is a canon at the unison, the first of nine canons. Every third variation thereafter is a canon of an increased interval – the sixth variation a canon at the second, the ninth a canon at the third, the twelfth a canon at the fourth, up to the twenty-seventh variation which is a canon at the ninth. Yet the canons are never mechanical or dogmatic, being simply the stockin trade from which a contrapuntal master draws great music. For example, the ninth variation has some of the most attractive melodie interweaving in the work. After each canon Bach commonly introduces a more clear-cut variation, as in the fresh, four-part polyphonyof the fourth, followed by one of the duet variations wh ich invariably show that Goldberg was an exceptional harpsichordist, and then the new canon. Such is the pattern until the elaborate fifteenth variation, the canon at the fifth and the first variation in the minor mode, rounds off the first half of the work. The next variation in the style of a French overture – a slow first section and faster fughetta second section – opens in full and bright fashion the second 15 variations on the same pattern as before, leading to a triumphal climax in the two similar and rhythmically brilliant twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth variations. The thirtieth is a “Quodlibet” in four parts on popular tunes of Bach’s day, then the air returns in its orginal form, its harmonies now seeming more vivid for the knowledge of the large and magnificent design which they support.

Other Variations
The “Aria variata alla maniera italiana” was composed at a very early period, probably in Weimar about 1709. It is less strong in its framework than the great set of “Goldberg” Variations but allows more scope to the performer. Johann Quantz, the German flautist and theorist, wrote: “According to Italian taste ornamentations were never written down in notes but were left to the discretion of the interpreter. It cannot be denied that with Italian music the performer is almost as important as the composer, if a piece is to have ils full effect.” The full beauties of the piece are revealed when, as here, ornamentation is given its rightful status. In training his pupils Bach laid great stress on the teaching of ornamentation.This explains the small incomplete fragment “Air with variations in C minor” which Bach wrote into the “Klavierbüchlein” (Uttle Keyboard Book) of his wife Anna Magdalena in 1722.

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