Hamburger Camerata

Bach’s Goldberg Variations are no longer regarded as gentle music for insomniac aristocrats, and the funny anecdote according to which the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg asked Bach for new harpsichord works so that he could provide musical entertainment for his employer Count von Keyserlingk at night is almost certainly not true. The Goldberg Variations are surely far too artful to be soothing night music. Originally written for the chirping harpsichord, they now unfurl their polyphony with equal vividness through the luminous sound of a string orchestra.