Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

Overview

This recording has been reissued in the Essential Baroque Masterpieces collection with an exclusive interview of Céline Frisch:

"Well, I suppose the obvious thing was to begin with Bach, who has been at the centre of my activity as musician right from the start. The Goldberg Variations are one of the peaks of the keyboard literature – for any instrument! – but also make an absolutely perfect programme for a concert or a disc. The fascination I feel for this work – and a touch of recklessness – made me want to record it.

When I began to work on the Goldbergs, I played the work a great deal, very slowly, in order to steep myself in the musical material. Then I let the music settle and allowed each piece to find its place, in an almost unconscious way. Of course, the characterisation of each variation, the elabora-tion of the transitions and the construction of the overall form were the object of a great deal of reflection and of maturation. You might describe the way I approached the work as a process of constant toing and froing between intellectual reflection and musical sensibility."