Early Music Vancouver announces its electrifying 55th season with a new arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in Victoria this fall.
The Goldberg Variations are known as iconic in Western music, demonstrating Bach’s technical development, virtuosic finesse, and compositional sophistication.
Composed through a period of personal tumult for Bach – including two unsuccessful job applications, the premature death of his son, and criticism of his music in a prominent Hamburg publication – the Goldberg Variations will be transformed and given new relevance for our modern time, Early Music said in a news release announcing its Sept. 21 concert.
“We are delighted to return to Victoria with our very own Pacific Baroque Orchestra, made up of many local musicians who are local to the city,” said Suzie LeBlanc, artistic director.
LeBlanc sees the new arrangement by keyboardist and director Alexander Weimann as perfectly encapsulating the Early Music “philosophy of breathing new life into timeless musical works of the past.”
Weimann says he’s been long inspired by the work.
“While there are existing arrangements of the work for baroque chamber ensemble … my approach to Bach’s writing incorporates the Trio Sonata No. 4 in C Major by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (long attributed to Bach) that I've woven into the Variations. It has been supremely rewarding to place myself in Bach’s mind, imagining how he himself might have orchestrated the work for strings, winds, and harpsichord.”
Early Music Vancouver performs the new arrangement of Goldberg Variations on Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1205 Pandora Ave.
Tickets are available at earlymusic.bc.ca.
