Performers
- Maciej Frąckiewicz accordion
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 [50’]
Concert description
“Bach is the father of music of our era. Nicht Bach, Meer sollte er heissen*) – Beethoven said. Indeed – Bach is like the sea,” wrote Stefan Kisielewski. Reaching for the music of the Baroque genius, we reach to the inexhaustible sources of all later composers’ creativity. Wherein lies its phenomenon? Perhaps the answer will be provided by The Goldberg Variations, a polyphonic masterpiece that grows out of universal mathematical laws.
A human voice can sing a single melody. A choir composed of many people will sing several of them. Polyphony consists of harmonious conducting of voices, or singing lines, but often by a single instrument. It was out of thinking in terms of melody, cantilena, that the Goldberg Variations were born. Bach wrote them for the then-popular harpsichord, whose sound is noble but quiet and short. The modern accordion, on the other hand, can truly sing, linking notes together and breathing along with the musical phrase. The foundation of the composition is the Aria, or rather its melody, curiously contained in the lower bass voice. The thirty variations that follow reveal Bach’s love of symmetry and proportion. They are grouped in threes – with a dance, a virtuoso miniature and a canon – so that the piece develops gradually and diversely. From polonaise and fugato to sarabande and quodlibet, from simple figurations and canons to rich ornamentation and elaborate polyphonic forms.
*) Translated from German: “Not Brook (German: Bach), but Sea (German: Meer) should be his name”.
– Karolina Dąbek (pisanezesluchu.pl)