British conductor and keyboardist Matthew Halls is something of a Bach specialist, so it may be unsurprising that he devises a very unusual program for his take on Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. The fact is that the Goldbergs are not Bach's only large-scale set of variations for keyboard; he completed one, or possibly two other sets, and there is one unfinished set intended for the Anna Magdalena Bach Book. The uncertainty is connected to the Sarabanda con Partite, BWV 990, that opens Halls' album; its ...
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British conductor and keyboardist Matthew Halls is something of a Bach specialist, so it may be unsurprising that he devises a very unusual program for his take on Bach's monumental Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. The fact is that the Goldbergs are not Bach's only large-scale set of variations for keyboard; he completed one, or possibly two other sets, and there is one unfinished set intended for the Anna Magdalena Bach Book. The uncertainty is connected to the Sarabanda con Partite, BWV 990, that opens Halls' album; its autograph is missing, but later copies attribute it to Bach. The piece appears to rework an overture by Lully, which argues against Bach's authorship, but the ingenious structure, with the last four variations forming a little dance suite, supports it. Additionally, the themes and variation techniques of both this work and the concluding, early, and quite rarely recorded (the young Glenn Gould being a notable exception) Aria variata, BWV 988, have a certain kinship of treatment with...
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![J.S. Bach-the Goldberg Variations; Sarabanda Con Partite; Aria Variata [Hdcd]](https://www1.alibris-static.com/cover/m85389gty3x_t.jpg)
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