Johann Sebastian Bach

“An ode to silence” is how harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has described Bach’s Goldberg Variations. “I feel they were written for silence, in the sense that they take the place of silence,” he says. “All Bach is there in the Goldberg Variations … all music is there ... and I will no doubt spend my life working on them.” To prepare his interpretation he consulted an original printed edition of the work, containing Bach’s own markings...

Notated on four staves, as though intended for some unspecified set of instruments (or even voices), these thirteen erudite contrapuncti, four canons, and an unfinished triple fugue-incorporating the letters of Bach's name-are often considered to be his musical testament. Shrouded in myths traceable to it's very origins, this is a puzzle for the performers and for the listeners alike, but when a brilliant string quartet takes up the challenge, a solution...

The latest release from Vikingur Ölafsson, this two-CD album combines the original Bach album, a collection of both well-known and rarely performed pieces by the famous Baroque composer, including transcriptions by Busconi, Rachmaninov, Siloti, and Vikingur himself; and Bach Reworks, an album of new arrangements of Vikingur's Bach transcriptions from electronic artists such as Valgeir Sigurösson and Ben Frost, Peter Gregson, and Ryuichi Sakamoto....