The large number of experiments inspired by Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, perhaps reaches its apogee in this Austrian recording (although no doubt someone will find a way to outdo it). It is the stable bass line of the variations that stimulates this kind of thinking: no matter how far the musicians get from the original, they can remain linked to it by that bass line. This Gold.Berg.Werk is packed with ideas that may at times interfere with one another, but you never lose track of what's going on. The chief problem ...
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The large number of experiments inspired by Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, perhaps reaches its apogee in this Austrian recording (although no doubt someone will find a way to outdo it). It is the stable bass line of the variations that stimulates this kind of thinking: no matter how far the musicians get from the original, they can remain linked to it by that bass line. This Gold.Berg.Werk is packed with ideas that may at times interfere with one another, but you never lose track of what's going on. The chief problem is that programmer Karlheinz Essl does not perform his "electronic interventions" on Bach's music itself, but on another intervening layer: the arrangement of the work for string trio by Russian composer/performer Dmitry Sitkovetsky, which has been recorded by several other ensembles. Then Essl rearranges the variations. He groups them into canons, character variations, and harpsichordistic variations (corresponding to Ralph Kirkpatrick's traditional classification consisting of...
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