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J.S.Bach: Goldberg Variations – Transcribed for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Hadar Cohen, violin
Yoni Gertner, viola
Gal Nyska, cello
This concert is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Elaine Wolfensohn (1937-2020(.
Former President of AFIPO, who believed the Orchestra to be the finest ambassador of Israel.
A special friend and supporter throughout the years.
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Video Director: Yoel Culiner
Director of Photography: Dror Heller
Sound: Rafi Eshel, Yaron Aldema – Eshel Sound Studios
Creative Director: Elizabeth Culiner
Light Designer: Dani Rogovin
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When the Goldberg Variations were published in 1741, they were simply called “Aria with different variations for harpsichord with two manuals.” Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the keyboard virtuoso and composer, had his name attached to them in 1802 by J. S. Bach’s biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel. According to Forkel, “Count Keyserlingk, formerly Russian ambassador to Saxony, often visited Leipzig. Among his servants there was a talented young man, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg – a harpsichordist who was a pupil of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and later of Johann Sebastian Bach himself. The count had been suffering from insomnia and ill health and Goldberg, who also lived there, had to stay in the room next door to soothe his master’s suffering with music. Once the count asked Bach to compose some keyboard pieces for Goldberg, pieces of mellowness and gaiety that would enliven his sleepless nights. Bach decided to write a set of variations, a form that prior to this, hadn’t interested him much. Nevertheless, in his masterly hands, an exemplary work of art had been born. The count was so delighted with it, he called them ‘my variations’. He would often say: ‘My dear Goldberg, play me one of my variations’.” It is difficult to believe that Bach would have published a commissioned work without any dedication to either Keyserlingk or Goldberg, which makes the story doubtful, along with the fact that Goldberg was only 14 at the time. Bach may have given Keyserlingk a copy of the printed edition.
The Aria is based on a sarabande melody that Bach had written as part of Anna Magdalena Bach’s Notebook. The thirty variations that follow are grouped in ten units of three, of which the third is always a canon. The final variation is marked Quodlibet, which means a gathering of tunes, and includes some of the popular tunes that Bach had heard on the streets of Leipzig. The work ends with a simple repetition of the opening Aria.
The transcription for string trio was done by violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky, who also made an orchestral transcription of the variations.