26 BACH | GOLDBERG VARIATIONS BWV 988 What did the exploration of these Goldberg Variations reveal to you? Engaging with this score has shed light for me on the power of polyphony and its fundamental role in Western music. Analysing the often very complex way in which the different voices evolve independently and then come together to create harmony… this has helped me to understand what underpins musical language. Bach here pushes exacting standards to such a degree that the slightest microdetail becomes essential to expression. Not a single note, not a single rest is superfluous. Added to this are genuine technical challenges, with certain passages being virtually unplayable on a single keyboard, as if they were purely conceptual and did not necessarily call for practical realisation.It is then up to the performer to make choices, to accept relinquishing one thing in order to realise another, to come to terms with oneself. It becomes at once an act of surrender and a form of liberation, ultimately, an excellent lesson in life.
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