In an adulatory article praising Simone Dinnerstein’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Evan Eisenberg calls her performance “an extended fairy tale.” Her recording of perhaps the greatest work written for solo harpsichord with two manuals (played currently on the piano) is arguably the greatest since Glenn Gould’s. The eccentric Canadian master of the keyboard recorded the “Goldbergs” twice, at the beginning of his career in 1955, and at the end in 1981, both monuments in the history of music recording. Now we have a new and fascinating interpretation by the talented Brooklyn-born Dinnerstein, to be heard tonight in Harris Hall in her Aspen debut.
Bach was fascinated with numerology, and the layout of the Goldbergs, composed in 1741, reflects this interest. The 30 variations are based on the harmonic structure (bass line) of the 32-bar aria, a sarabande that Bach borrowed from his own Clavierbuch written for his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach in 1725. Because the variations are based on the harmony of the original theme, not the melody, they require careful listening (like all great music!). Listen to the left hand (chord progression) during the opening aria for the harmonic pattern. Starting with the third variation, every third variation is a canon (two-part polyphony), with the intervals between the parts moving from unison (no interval) to an interval of a second (variation 6), a third (variation 9), a fourth (12), a fifth (15), sixth (18), seventh (variation 21), eighth (24) and finally, variation 27 with the canon melodies at the interval of a ninth. All the variations are in G major except numbers 15, 21, and 25, which are in G minor. At the end the performer is directed to repeat the opening aria (theme) note for note. Dinnerstein’s performance of the Goldbergs is sure to be one of the highlights of what has already proven to be a great summer of music in Aspen.
