Luogo e data di registrazione		Hervormde Kerk in Bennebroek (Holland) - 28/29 April 1965
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken - SAWT 9474-A - (1 LP) - durata 47' 45" - (p) 1965 - Analogico
	Edizione "Reference" CD		Tedec - 8.43632 ZS - (1 CD) - LC 3706 - durata 47' 45" - (c) 1987 - AAD
	Cover		Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
	Note		-

The Goldberg Variations are not only the most extensive variation composition of the baroque age but also the most complicated and manifold. Bach has taken the “Aria“ on which they are based from his own Music Book for Anna Magdalena of 1725; it is not certain whether he himself wrote the melody. It is in the form of a sensitive little sarabande in G major with a richly embellished upper part. Its metric and harmonic structure is, however, very simple: two sections of sixteen bars, divided further into eight-bar groups, each consisting of four two-bar sarabande phrases. Almost every bar (the exceptions being the final bars 16 and 32) is dominated by the characteristic sarabande rhythm, the whole being based on a simple cadential plan that leads, in calm progressions corresponding exactly to the metrical divisions, from the tonic through the domi- nant, the relative minor and the subdominant back to the tonic. It is this cadential plan, together with its supporting bass line, that forms the basis of the variations; the sara- bande melody in the upper part is generally only alluded to, not properly varied. Thus the Goldberg Variations belong to the tradition of “variations on a ground bass“, of the chaconne and the passacaglia. But at the same time they fill this rigid form to its very limits, not only with a magnificent unfolding of all its inherent possibilities but furthermore with the sum of nearly all the forms and movement types of the instrumental music of the age. Throughout the work we find three consecutive variations always formed into a group, of which the first and second pieces display forms, types of composition and aspects of harpsichord technique, while the third in each case is formed as a strict canon. These canons are arranged in themselves according to _ the intervals at which the canonic entries occur, from the unison to the ninth, their intensity of expression growing and changing with the intervals from the playful and relaxed to the brooding and earnest. Finally, the number of variations - thirty - corresponds exactly to the number of bars in the aria minus the cadence bars . 16 and 32; the middle of the cycle is marked by Variation 15 (canon at the fifth) as the first piece in G minor and Variation 16 as a resplendent French overture that opens the second part. To conclude the cycle the thir- tieth variation, the famous Quodlibet, gives us a Kumoristic “interpretation“ of the entire work in retrospect by means of two folk-song quotations. The chaconne bass is played almost without embellishment, the upper voices playing in skillful imitation and combination the song “Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gwest“ (I have not been with you for such a long time) - referring to the Aria melody that really belongs to this bass.’ They then give the reason in the other song: “Kraut und Rüben“ (Cabbage and turnips) - meaning the variations - “haben micht vertrieben“ (have driven me away). As a logical consequence, the Aria is repeated after this contrite declaration, restoring the original order and concluding and rounding off the cycle to everybody’s satisfaction. We thus find the following overall plan: The Goldberg Variations are not only the most extensive variation composition of the baroque age but also the most complicated and manifold. Bach has taken the “Aria“ on which they are based from his own Music Book for Anna Magdalena of 1725; it is not certain whether he himself wrote the melody. It is in the form of a sensitive little sarabande in G major with a richly embellished upper part. Its metric and harmonic structure is, however, very simple: two sections of sixteen bars, divided further into eight-bar groups, each consisting of four two-bar sarabande phrases. Almost every bar (the exceptions being the final bars 16 and 32) is dominated by the characteristic sarabande rhythm, the whole being based on a simple cadential plan that leads, in calm progressions corresponding exactly to the metrical divisions, from the tonic through the domi- nant, the relative minor and the subdominant back to the tonic. It is this cadential plan, together with its supporting bass line, that forms the basis of the variations; the sara- bande melody in the upper part is generally only alluded to, not properly varied. Thus the Goldberg Variations belong to the tradition of “variations on a ground bass“, of the chaconne and the passacaglia. But at the same time they fill this rigid form to its very limits, not only with a magnificent unfolding of all its inherent possibilities but furthermore with the sum of nearly all the forms and movement types of the instrumental music of the age. Throughout the work we find three consecutive variations always formed into a group, of which the first and second pieces display forms, types of composition and aspects of harpsichord technique, while the third in each case is formed as a strict canon. These canons are arranged in themselves according to _ the intervals at which the canonic entries occur, from the unison to the ninth, their intensity of expression growing and changing with the intervals from the playful and relaxed to the brooding and earnest. Finally, the number of variations - thirty - corresponds exactly to the number of bars in the aria minus the cadence bars . 16 and 32; the middle of the cycle is marked by Variation 15 (canon at the fifth) as the first piece in G minor and Variation 16 as a resplendent French overture that opens the second part. To conclude the cycle the thir- tieth variation, the famous Quodlibet, gives us a Kumoristic “interpretation“ of the entire work in retrospect by means of two folk-song quotations. The chaconne bass is played almost without embellishment, the upper voices playing in skillful imitation and combination the song “Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir gwest“ (I have not been with you for such a long time) - referring to the Aria melody that really belongs to this bass.’ They then give the reason in the other song: “Kraut und Rüben“ (Cabbage and turnips) - meaning the variations - “haben micht vertrieben“ (have driven me away). As a logical consequence, the Aria is repeated after this contrite declaration, restoring the original order and concluding and rounding off the cycle to everybody’s satisfaction. We thus find the following overall plan: Aria Variatio 16 French Overture Variatio 1 Two-part Invention, quasi Corrente Variatio 17 Two-part concerto movement, similar to Variatio 14 Variatio 2 Three-part Sinfonia Variatio 18 Two-part Canon at the sixth, alla breve, in stretto with free bass Variatio 3 Two-part Canon at the unison with free bass Variatio 19 Three-part Minuet Variatio 4 Four-part imitatory, quasi Passepied Variatio 20 Two-part concerto movement for two manuals with crosing of the hands, virtuoso keyboard figuration and off-beat semiquavers Variatio 5 Two-part Invention for one or two manuals with crossing of the hands Variatio 21 Two-part Canon at the seventh with free chromatic bass, in G minor Variatio 6 Two-part Canon at the second with free bass Variatio 22 Four-part alla breve, three-part Fugato over a free bass in the style of a ricercar Variatio 7 Two-part Gigue Variatio 23 Two-part concerto movement for two manuals with virtuoso keyboard figuration, runs, off-beat chords and crossing of the hands Variatio 8 Two-part Invention for two manuals with crossing of the hands Variatio 24 Two-part Canon at the octave over a free bass, quasi Gigue Variatio 9 Two-part Canon at the third with free bass Variatio 25 aria descant movement with two-part chromatic foundation in G minor Variatio 10 Four-part Fughette Variatio 26 Chordal Sarabande in 3/4 time with "disembellished" aria melody in the upper part and superimposed flowing 18/16 motion, both alternately in the right and the left hand, on two manuals Variatio 11 Two-part Gigue for two manuals with crossing of the hands Variatio 27 Two-part Canon at the ninth without free bass Variatio 12 Two-part Canon at the fourth in contrary motion with free bass Variatio 28 Virtuoso concerto movement in free writing "Etude" in written-out trills and double trills Variatio 13 Aria descant movment with two-part foundation Variatio 29 The same, "Etude" in off-beat chords Variatio 14 Two-part concerto movement for two manuals with crossing of the hands and virtuoso keyboard figuration Variatio 30 Three-part Quodlibet over a free bass Variatio 15 Two-part Canon at the fifth in contrary motion with free bass, in G minor Aria repeated In this magnificent musical structure we find reflected the inexhaustible and unfathomable variety of a real musical cosmos, similar to the order of this world and its relation to an unchangeable and ever-present centre - here represented by the chaconne bass. This is true not only in the obvious musical sense, but at the same time as a profound symbolism hardly to be understood except in theological terms, which seems to elevate this “commissioned“ work into nothing less than an image of the universal order. Ludwig Finscher Martin Skowroneck writes about the harpsichord he built ın 1962/63 in the style of J. D. Dulcken: Johann Daniel Dulcken was the son of the instrument maker Anton Dülcken, who had emigrated from Hessen to Brussels. J. D. Dulcken set up his workshop about 1740 in Antwerp and moved in 1764 (after his father’s death) to Brussels. Twelve to fifteen of his harpsichords, dating from between 1741 and 1769, have been preserved, and, according to Lüttgendorf, some lutes. (Not all the instruments attributed to him can be said with certainty to have come from his workshop, and it is possible that many more, not generally known, may exist in private ownership.) Charles Burney in his travel diary of 1772, in which he writes about the Antwerp harpsichord builders, calls J. D. Dulcken the best harpsichord maker after the Ruckers family, and mentions Joannes Bull as a pupil of his who had done very fine work. Certainly he misses the pedals for changing registers common in England at that time, and the swell, and remarks that the instruments outwardly are painted without decoration, a feature of all Netherlands and also of many German claviers. Dulcken in his instruments adheres to the tradition of the Antwerp harpsichord makers, above all the Ruckers family: the materials employed are similar, and the outward appearance of the painted case and of the soundboard painted with flowers is that which had been common in Antwerp for more than a century. The carefully thought out interior construction is a logical development from the Ruckers instruments to an impressive larger model, with a five-octave compass and a length of 2.60 metres. It permits a light and therefore exceptionally stable method of construction, by which the whole case and not merely the soundboard contributes to the tone. This replica harpsichord is no exact copy but new construction based on examinations of two Dulcken. instruments in Washington. and Vienna, preserved from the year 1745. Moreover, for purposes of comparison instruments of other contemporaries were referred to, particularly of his pupil Joannes Bull. In the new manufacture, the framework and bulk were treated with the freedom usual in early harpsichord making. The tolerances, which in several extant originals of one and the same master are identical, ensure a uniform total conception and a close kinship of tone as well as the individuality of each single instrument. A copy, exact to the millimetre, of a single surviving original — possibly repeated several times — runs counter to the old tradition and can falsify the picture, in that isolated particular requirements (e.g. slightly harder or softer’ wood or other special wishes of the customer) are thoughtlessly reproduced. What is more, by exact copying it is as little possible to attain the musical qualities of a harpsichord as of a Stradivarius. On the other hand, measurements must not be so much altered, or new construction elements introduced, that one can no longer speak of an instrument “in the style of ...” and expect musical results similar to the original and specially suited for the performance of historical music. Hence it was accepted that all the advances of modern piano and harpsichord making should be forgone: material, construction and the wooden mechanical parts without regulating screws are in accordance with the original design. This harpsichord is individually made by hand in every part. That was the practice in early harpsichord making, as today it is still common usage in the making of stringed instruments. At the start of the 19th century a member of the Dulcken family (Johann Ludwig, born 1761 in Amsterdam, until 1835 “Court piano maker in Munich”) was still refusing to extend his workshop, on the grounds that “the completing of an instrument must remain in one pair of hands’. The disposition is that of almost all the two-manual harpsichords of the late 17th and the 18th centuries: Lower manual, 8’, 4’: Upper manual 8’: manual coupler. On the upper manual, the nasal “lutestop” of English instruments (common with Dulcken), a row of jacks close to the plank-bridge (nut) passing through the wrest-plank, which acts as an alternative row of jacks on the same 8’ strings.