Photo credit: Julian Kingma
The beautiful Goldberg Variations actually began life in 1741 with a much more grandiloquent name: ‘An Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals. Composed for Music Lovers to Refresh their Spirits by Johann Sebastian Bach’. Isn’t that just delightful! Perhaps some music marketing person down the last 280 years decided that would never fit on the poster and so it became known as the Goldberg Variations.
More music mythology says that the Variations were an eccentric commission from Count Keyserling, an insomniac aristocrat and former ambassador, who instructed his court musician, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to play music of a “smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights.” And cheered up he should have been as these pieces are quite splendid in their colour and depth.
Originally composed for the harpsichord, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) played an arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for string orchestra by the Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie. The 30 Variations, bookended by the aria at the beginning and the aria de capo at the end, filled the entire second half of the program. Richard Tognetti played them almost continuously, one segueing into the next, with only a few minor pauses. And even though it was an arrangement for strings, there were some distinctly percussive elements with the players plucking and picking, tapping and slapping their instruments to good effect. Thankfully an announcement at the beginning of the concert asked the audience to hold their applause until the end. Only the ringing of a telephone in the auditorium during the final moments of the Variations marred the pure enjoyment of the music.
The concert opened with Three Pieces for String Quartet composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1914. Known as Danse, Eccentrique, and Cantique, these pieces have precise and distinctive characteristics, from the other-worldliness of the Cantique to the insistence of the Eccentrique.
A diversion into Nightfalls by the contemporary British composer Thomas Adès set the scene for the Variations to follow. This is the haunting first movement of Adès’ 2011 work The Four Quarters.
And then it was onto the Bach with the Canons on a Goldberg Ground arranged by the ACO’s own Richard Tognetti. These 14 pieces were played virtually as one, with few pauses and much intensity.
This was an interesting and perceptive program and an altogether excellent performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. As usual, the players were standing (with obvious exceptions) allowing them some personal expression as they played. And the precious period instruments were nicely complemented by the digital scores and high-tech foot pedals. No more awkward flipping of pages to interrupt proceedings.
Guest keyboard player Erin Helyard, from the Melbourne Conservatorium, played both harpsichord and piano with a considered touch. And it was a pleasure to see Axel Wolf’s mastery of the theorbo, a bass lute that was a popular instrument in the 1700s. Richard Tognetti was charismatic, playing and conducting, and leading the ACO with his usual insouciant flair.
4 ½ stars: ★★★★☆
Goldberg Variations, City Recital Hall Sydney
Performance 8th August reviewed)
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti Director & Violin.
STRAVINSKY Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)
THOMAS ADÈS (arr. strings) Nightfalls first movement of string quartet The Four Quarters (2011)
BACH (arr. Richard Tognetti) Canons on a Goldberg Ground
BACH (arr. Bernard Labadie) Goldberg Variations Australian Premiere
Australian Chamber Orchestra national tour: Brisbane Monday 13 August, Sydney Tuesday 14 August , and Wollongong Thursday 16 August.
