24 BACH | GOLDBERG VARIATIONS BWV 988 Is it difficult to strike the right emotional balance in this music? It is one of the most daunting aspects ! The pulsation helps to structure the eloquence, while the polyphonic progression sheds light on the relative importance of the different voices. I have sometimes had the feeling that the music spoke of its own accord, regardless of my will, and that all I had to do was let the instrument guide me. It was an extraordinarily powerful yet fleeting feeling. One can then arrive, without quite being able to explain it, at a sense of inevitability, even if doubt never entirely disappears. This work is so singular and visionary because of its harmonic complexity. Here, Bach is not responding to a commission, but seems to be addressing himself, offering himself a field of exploration of astonishing breadth, whether in harmonic, contrapuntal or technical terms. He thus leaves us a certain freedom in choosing our points of entry. This may well be one of the reasons why there are so many versions of this cycle, so different from one another and yet all so compelling.
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