Luogo e data di registrazione		Konzerthaus, Vienna (Austria) - giugno 1953
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Seymour Solomon
	Engineer		Otto Panytsch
	Prima Edizione LP		Vanguard - The Bach Guild | BG-536 | 1 LP - durata 54' 20" | (p) 1954
	Edizione CD		Omega Record | OVC 2004 | 1 CD - durata 54' 19" | (p) & (c) 1992 | ADD Artemis Classics | ATM-CD-1281 | 1 CD - durata 54' 19" | (p) & (c) 2005 | ADD
	Cover Art		-
	Note		Billboard, 18 september 1954

The Aria with Thirty Variations or Goldberg Variations, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), is one of the great masterpieces of the composer's last years. Published by Bach in 1742, iy constitutes the fourth part of his Clavierübung. In it Bach summed up everything done in the variation from before him, brought the form to a new level of breadth and grandeur, and carried on harmonic explorations that foreshadowed the future development of music. Two extremes meet in it. On the one hand, it contains passage after passage of the most airy, light and frolicsome music, in the spirit of an "entertainment." On the other hand, it is one of Bach's profoundly "learned" works, in which he set himself and solved intricate problems of polyphonic writing. It embodies an architecture similar to that of the Canonic Variations and Art of Fugue, but clothed in a galant raiment of ornament and arabesque reminiscent of the French and English suites. The set of variations was written for one of Bach's former pupils, Johann Theophilus Goldberg, to play for his patron, the Baron von Kayserling, on the nights when the Baron suffered from sleeplessness and "melancholy thoughts." Kayserling never wearied of hearing them, and in his gratitude gave Bach a snuffbox containing a hundred Louis d'or. But in his work Bach spoke also to the learned musicians of his time, offering them an encyclopedic set of lessons in baroque counterpoint. He furthermore brought together every style and mood from witty "galanteries" and stately dances to the most poignant sadness and openhearted paesant humor, and gave the whole a structural unity that only his great musical intellect could conceive and execute. All the thirty variations are based on the harmony of the opening aria, but not in all the variations are these harmonic steps clearly heard. In some, such as the heartrending twentyfifth, they are contained within a pregression which so envelops them that the music seems to come from a different harmonic world. Bach unifies the work by making each third variation a canon and each successive canon is on a rising interval, the series starting with a canon in unison, the next being a canon on the second, the next a canon on the interval of a third and so on. The second variation after each canon is a duet. The aria on which Bach builds this musical edifice is a sarabande, which he had written some ten years before in the clavier notebook of his wife, anna Magdalena. It is in two parts, and the subsequent variations are also each in two parts, with the second part of each embarking on the more adventurous harmonic paths. The mood which Bach sets at first is one of airy "galanterie." After the sarabande, we hear (1) a duet with wide leaps and arpeggios, then (2) a trio in pastoral mood with a lively bass, (3) the canon in the unison, (4) a lively study in triple time of polyphony with inversions, and (5) as a climax of this mood, a joyous outburst in a duet employing crossing hands. Then we return to the realm of the dance with (7) a whimsical piece in the rhythm of a gigue or Venetian forlane. Next (8) is another brilliant duet, with hands crossing, after which comes (9) the canon in the third with the answer entering below the subject, and (10) a fughetta. The gravity that had been introduced by the sixth variation is taken up now and deepened with (11) a charming and tender dialogue, after which comes (12) the canon in the fourth, in which the answer is an inversion of the subject. In the beauty, clarity and strenght of this canon we begin to perceive the rock-like structure which Bach is building within what has seemed up to now to be largely a frolicsome mood. With the next variation (13) we are drawn still further into the vein of tender sadness, the style being close kin to that of the slow movement of the Italian Concerto. A brilliant display of high spirits follows (14), after which the poignant feeling returns with (15) the canon in the fifth, in which the answer again is an inversion of the subject. This is also the first variation in a minor key, and it marks a new stage in the emotional development of the music. The sadness which we have now reached will become even deeper, although alternating with joyous episodes. Side two of the recording opens with a variation (16) in the spirit of a French overture, with a stately processional followed by a faster section, after which there is (17) a brilliant duet exploiting fully the double keyboard, and (18) a canon in the sixth, with the rhythm of a march, and the two canonic parts interweaving over a harmonically rich bass. A short, sprightly variation in trio texture (19) is followed by one of the most vivacious and rhythmically complex duets (20), and then (21) the canon in the seventh, which is also the second of the variations in minor and is full of sweetness and pathos. A study in massive, four-part polyphony (22) now appears, followed by what Tovey characterizes as a "madcap frolic" (23), and then (24) by the canon in the octave, which has the rhythm of a siciliana. This prepares the ground for (25) the third of the variations in minor, and the emotional climax of the entire work. The face of tragedy appears, with a long, anguished lament, moving chromatically, as in the Cricifixus of the Mass in B minor. From this point on all is high spirits and brilliant virtuosity. We have (26) a variation in sarabande rhythm under a running figuration, followed by (27) a canon in the ninth which, unlike the previous canons, has no non-canonic bass. The brilliant display music which its virtuoso demands now (28) becomes even more glittering, and the following variation (29) carries the bravura display of human powers still further. And just as the poignant outpouring of feeling of the twenty-fifth variation was the climax of the sad variations, so now (30) the climax of joy is reached in the earthy folk-like spirit of the final variation. This closing variation is a Quodlibet, which in its vocal form had been a favorite amusement of the Bach family at its annual gatherings. Forkel's description is worth repeating. "The first thing they did was to sing a chorale. From this pious commencement they proceeded to drolleries which often made a very great contrast with it. For now they sang popular songs, the content of which were partly comic and partly naughty, all together and extempore, but in such a manner that the several parts thus extemporized made a kind of harmony together, the words, however, in every part being different. They called this kind of harmony a Quodlibet, and not only laughed heartily at it themselves, but excited an equally hearty and irresistible laughter in everybody that heard them." Bach employs the melodies of two popular songs in this Quodlibet, the words of which begin "Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gewest" ("I long have been away from thee"), and "Kraut and Rüben haben mich vertrieben" ("Cabbages and turnips have driven me away"). The curtain which had risen to reveal this teeming world of joy and suffering now closes upon it. The grave and tender sarabande, which had undergone such remarkable transformations, now returns, peaceful and unruffled, to bid the whole world, like the Baron von Kayserling, good-night. Notes by S. W. Bennett About the Performance Gustav M. Leonhardt, born in 1928 in Holland, has entered the select circle of brilliant instrumentalists who are also ground-breaking scholars of Renaissance and Baroque music. In his student years in Holland, Switzerland and Austria he won the highest honors both for musicology and performance on the harpsichord and organ. He is one of the achnowledged European masters of the authentic ornaments and improvisatory style of Baroque music. In the spirit of the old musician-artisans, he is also an expert on the construction and design of the harpsichord and Baroque organ. Since 1952 he has been professor of harpsichord and musicology at the Academy of Music in Vienna, dividing his time between Vienna and the Conservatory at Amsterdam, where he teaches as well. This recording of the Goldberg Variations continues the series of recordings of Baroque harpsichord and organ music being made by Mr. Leonhardt, who is an exclusive Vanguard-Bach Guild recording artist. His recording of Bach's Art of Fugue (BG 532/3) has already been established in American musical life as a classic reading of this great work, confirming the praise accorded by European critics and audiences following Mr. Leonhardt's recitals in London, Vienna and Amsterdam. This reading of the Goldberg Variations will likewise stand as a permanent testament to the finest Bach scholarship and interpretative insight of our time. For this recording Mr. Leonhardt has used an Ammer harpsichord made in Eisenberg, Germany.