J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations Geoffrey Madge

J.S. BACH GOLDBERG VARIATIONS GEOFFREY MADGE Johann Sebastian Bach The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 The Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach that he might be a little cheered up were first published in 1741. Bach wrote by them in his sleepless nights. Bach the work for the brilliant harpsichordist thought he could fulfill this wish by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg and it remains means of the Goldberg Variations.” the great masterpiece of the variation Perhaps the Count did need to form, indeed one of the major works have Goldberg play for him so as to ever written for the keyboard. Only the make the sleepness hours bearable, Diabelli Variations op. 120 by Ludwig unfortunately the whole story may have van Beethoven are of the same stature no strong foundation. However, it is a in the keyboard literature. It is one of nice anecdote! the most challenging works, musically and technically very demanding as it In the 18th century the Goldberg was written for a keyboard with two Variations took keyboard music to a manuals. We can assume that Johann new, unheard-of level. Not only because Gottlieb Goldberg must have been an of their technical excellence but incredible musician to inspire Bach to especially because of their miraculous write this work. wealth of expressions, you hear during the aria and the 30 variations. Count Kaiserling who suffered from insomnia, said, according to Forkel (the first biographer of Bach) “The Count mentioned in Bach’s presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character On listening to The Goldberg Variations It may help the listener to know that one performance. The variations could the aria theme is in two parts, likewise be played separately, with or without the variations that follow. The first repeats. Bach sometimes indicates a part proceeding harmonically to the repeat of each half of a variation with a dominant tonality (D), then, following a written out musical text, in these cases short break, the second part returning we should listen to the master. from the dominant to the tonic (G). The main harmonic development is often I started performing the Goldberg heard during the second part of each Variations approximately 40 years variation. This can perhaps best be ago. From then on until this day I have heard in the minor key variations. experienced every performance as a new event. Each time is a re-discovery During the cycle we hear various dance of the infinite possibilities that are forms and amazing canons in which the contained in the score. Impossible to themes are imitated at different melodic include all in one performance. intervals, showing not only Bach’s Because of this in each of my technical wizardry, but also, during the concerts I have concentrated on variations in the minor key, some of his different aspects. Sometimes passages most personal expressions. Reaching strictly in tempo, other moments their climax in variation 25, surely one of introducing a little more freedom the great moments in musical literature while trying to keep a sensible middle and the highlight of the cycle. balance. This remains for every performer one of the most difficult In Bach’s time it was not necessary, achievements. For instance, how to or even normal, to play the work retain a strictness and at the same complete as we hear it nowadays in time keep an emotional freedom that reflects the meaning behind the notes. sometimes forgotten in present day This in combination with the enormous Bach performances when hammered contrasts that occur from one variation in a continuous forte or even louder. to another. One moment music that This in combination with fast tempos could be taken from one of the passions which sound completely out of place of Bach and the next moment a considering the keyboard instruments completely different expression! In this of Bach’s time. We should not have to respect I am a great admirer of the old “tell” the music but let the music with its recordings from the 1930’s by Edwin myriad of voices speak to us. Fischer. Concerning the question of tempo in Another point to consider in a the Goldberg Variations it is so easy performance is the important preface to be influenced by several of the that Bach wrote for his two- and three great interpreters of the past. The two part inventions, where he speaks of the opposites Wanda Landowska and Glenn legato cantabile style, with a singing Gould for instance. Glenn Gould, who melodic line. Surely this is one of the has been very successful in bringing essential principles of any serious this masterpiece to the greater general performance of any keyboard work public with his various recordings, by Bach. variations that are sometimes very slow and sometimes very fast. We should also consider his high regard for the intimacy of the clavichord Then there is the question of with its subtle nuances within a low articulation and the possibilities of dynamic range, something we are not different grades of staccato and legato. accustomed to today. This is an area We know that Bach enjoyed playing on the clavichord which, in many ways, part of any interpretation, no matter on is a predecessor of the present-day which instrument it is played. pianoforte. On the clavichord you could play louder or softer, the general Then finally the infinite possibilities of dynamics being soft. In this respect the independence of Bach’s polyphonic we need to be careful not to go to lines. The performer needs to have a the extreme with a steady ff, which is good control of voicing. And that often so much louder than the sound any within a dynamic range that remains clavichord could produce. intimate. The wisdom of life speaks in every variation. The repeated aria as the I believe that many of the variations finale of the whole series of variations should be played intimately, as if in is a totally different experience than the a small room with just a few friends same aria as played at the beginning. In listening. The acoustics, the instrument, these moments Bach’s time becomes the listener and Bach must have their also ours, timeless. space in the dialogue. Many of Bach’s keyboard works have been inspired —Geoffrey Madge not only by vocal virtuosity but also by different instruments, especially the string- and baroque wind instruments (variation 16), and of course the organ. Many passages and variations feel as if they are composed with another instrument in mind. Some of them feel and sound as if a violinist or cellist is playing. I believe that this should be Geoffrey Madge Geoffrey Douglas Madge, born in facist regime of the colonels, decided Adelaide (Australia) in 1941. He studied to celebrate the new freedom by piano and composition at the Elder honouring Iannis Xenakis with three Conservatorium in Adelaide. After major concerts in a Xenakis Festival at winning first prize in the ABC piano the Herodus Atticus Theatre in Athens. competition in Sydney, he went to Europe where he studied with Geza In 1975 Decca recorded his first piano Anda and Eduardo del Pueyo. concerto Synaphai with Geoffrey Madge He gave successful debut concerts as soloist and the New Philharmonia in London, Cologne, Budapest and Orchestra. This recording was awarded Amsterdam. In 1972 he moved to The the Dutch Edison award. Netherlands following his appointment as professor of piano at the Royal In 1988 Philips issued Madge’s Conservatorium in The Hague, a position anthology of Ferruccio Busoni’s solo he held until his retirement in 2006. piano works on six CD’s. This production was an international success and Following a meeting in London in 1970 received many prizes, including another with the celebrated composer Iannis Dutch Edison award and the Belgian Xenakis, he gave many performances Caecilia Prize. His performances of the of his complete piano works. One of monumental Busoni Piano Concerto in the highlights in Geoffrey Madge’s a number of international festivals have cooperation with Xenakis was his very received rave critical response. successful contribution to the Xenakis Festival in 1975 in Athens with Herma, In the 1980’s he became well-known Evryali and Synaphai. In that year the worldwide through his integral new Greek government, replacing the performances of the monumental Opus Clavicembalisticum by K. Sorabji. He was the first and only to get permission from the composer to perform this mammoth 31/2 hour work. Since his first complete performance of O.C. in the Holland Festival (Utrecht) on June 11 1982, more performances followed in Chicago, London, Bonn, Montreal, Paris and Berlin. The release of the five CD production by BIS of his Chicago performance, recorded and filmed by WFMT Chicago, received high critical acclaim. Madge has meanwhile composed a considerable amount of music, including string quartets, songs, works for piano solo, a ballet Monkeys in a cage, premiered in the Sydney Opera House in 1977 followed by 30 performances and a piano concerto, premiered in Amsterdam in 1985. Through his connection with the Greek musical world he came into contact with the Nikos Skalkottas Society in Athens and was asked by the president Wolpe, Iannis Xenakis, Russian music of the Society to give the first complete from the 1920’s, Medtner’s three piano performance of the cycle of Skalkottas' concertos, George Gershwin’s Piano 32 Piano Pieces during the 1979 ISCM Concerto and his Rhapsody in Blue. Festival. In 1998 the Swedish label BIS invited him to record the piano Geoffrey Madge has given concertos as part of their Skalkottas masterclasses in Russia, India, Poland, project.

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