Ravinia 2025 Issue 1

MAIWOLFPHOTOGRAPHY minister, Heinrich, Count von Brühl—added Goldberg to his personal roster of chamber musicians in 1751. Goldberg succumbed to tu- berculosis five years later. Scholars have long since cast doubt on nu- merous aspects of Forkel’s account. The print- ed score lacks a dedication to Keyserlingk, a customary tribute to a patron closely associ- ated with a composition. The plausibility of a 14-year-old keyboardist—no matter how pro- digiously gifted—undertaking this monumen- tal collection of variations also has been subject to scrutiny. British organist, harpsichordist, and Bach specialist Peter Williams even con- jectured that Bach created these virtuosic vari- ations for neither Keyserlingk nor Goldberg, but for Wilhelm Friedemann. Like several of Bach’s Leipzig-period collec- tions, the Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderun- gen displays organizational planning at many levels. The entire set is subdivided into two large sections: the first half encompasses the aria and 15 variations; the second half begins with a variation in French overture form (No. 16) and includes the final 15 variations. Bach also grouped the 30 variations into small clus- ters of three variations, each containing a free variation, a duet (in most instances), and a canon. Each successive canon brings imitation at a wider interval: unison, second, third, and so on. The two variations preceding the canons follow a typical sequence: a one-manual free variation followed by two-manual duet. Excep- tions to this pattern occur every 12 variations. For example, Nos. 1 and 2 are both free varia- tions for single manual. Two pairs (Nos. 13 and 14 and Nos. 25 and 26) comprise a free varia- tion and duet, both for two manuals. Further enriching this complex harpsichord collection are the hand-crossing and other technical de- mands placed upon the performer. The final canon, a “quodlibet,” contains quota- tions from two popular tunes, although Bach did not label them in his score. Their common- ly accepted identities—“Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir g’west” (For So Long, I Have Not Been with You) and “Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben” (Cabbage and Beets Have Driven Me Away)—are derived from a marginal note written by lawyer and music collector Casper Siegfried Gäher in his printed copy of the Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen . Gäher indicated that Johann Christian Kittel, one of Bach’s former students, had shared that in- formation in an 1801 conversation. Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn, a music librarian at the Royal Library in Berlin, later wrote more expansive lyrics below Gäher’s note. These jocular titles and texts led 19th-century musicians and scholars to interpret the final canon as “comic,” an assumption recently chal- lenged by Bach specialist Michael Marissen. He traced “Cabbage and Beets” to a textual citation within a book of sermons (1701) and a discard- ed music manuscript in Jan Philips van der Schlichten’s painting Sitting Musician with a Pochette (1731), which contained both the tune and lyrics. Marissen had less success uncover- ing a source for the lyrics and melody of “For So Long.” Its complete absence from folksong catalogs prompted Marissen to consider an- other melodic source: the well-known Luther- an chorale “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” (What God Ordains Is Always Good), which corresponds perfectly to the tune in Bach’s can- on. This melody added a “serious” element to the quodlibet. In Marissen’s interpretation, the juxtaposition of a secular folksong and sacred chorale “could be heard as proclaiming that ul- timately the ‘Goldberg Variations’ were God’s handiwork, not Bach’s alone.” Bach’s contrapuntal ingenuity did not end with the publication of the Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen . In 1975, scholars rediscovered his personal copy of the printed score within a private collection in Strasbourg. This print contained numerous small corrections in red ink, written sometime between 1742 and 1746: articulations, accidentals, missing rests, or- namentation, tempo indications, and repeat signs. More surprisingly, Bach entered 14 new perpetual canons on the inside back cover: “Diverse canons on the first eight notes of the ground of the preceding aria.” These canons ranged widely in number of voices (one to six voices) and complexity (“simplex” to “augmen- tationem et diminutionem”). This addendum to the Goldberg Variations must have held deep personal significance to Bach. The number of variations corresponds to the composer’s name in the numeric alphabet: B (2) + A (1) + C (3) + H (8) = 14. One of Bach’s most famous portraits, the 1746 painting by Elias Gottlob Haußmann, shows the composer holding Canon No. 13 (“canon triplex a 6 Voc.”). Finally, the 60-year-old composer penned the abbreviation “etc.” in the bottom right corner, suggesting that his creative capacity and musi- cal inventiveness remained inexhaustible. – Program notes © 2025 Todd E. Sullivan ANGELA HEWITT Angela Hewitt occupies a unique posi- tion among today’s leading pianists. With a wide-ranging repertoire and frequent appear- ances in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia, she is also an award-winning recording artist whose performances of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters. In 2020, Hewitt received the City of Leipzig Bach Medal—a huge honor that for the first time in its 17-year history was awarded to a woman. Last March, she embarked “The Mozart Odys- sey,” a concert cycle of the composer’s complete piano concertos, first appearing with the Esto- nian National Symphony Orchestra. Across the 2024/25 season, conductor-led concerts include the Brussels, Royal Liverpool, and Warsaw Philharmonics; Fort Worth, Toronto, and Van- couver Symphonies; and the Ulster and (Cana- dian) National Arts Center Orchestras, and her performances conducting from the keyboard include the Cameristi della Scala, Bochum Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, and Malaysian Philharmonic. The global Mozart cycle follows her interna- tionally acclaimed 2016–22 “Bach Odyssey” of the composer’s complete keyboard works across 12 recitals. Hewitt’s 2024/25 season also includes recital tours of Australia and Japan, as well as in New York, Seoul, Toronto, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Utrecht, Bern, and Oxford, plus her regular appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. A prolific recording artist, Hewitt has earned resounding praise for her cycle of Bach’s keyboard works on Hyperion Records, and her discography also features works by Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Fauré, Debussy, Chabrier, Ravel, Messiaen, and Granados. This month she released the final volume of a Mozart piano so- nata cycle. Hewitt has received such honors as the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2018) and Companion of the Order of Canada (2015) from her native country, having launched her career with the top prize of the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition in 1985. Angela Hewitt first performed at Ra- vinia in 1985 as the winner of the Bach Piano Competition, and she previously returned with chamber programs in 2005 and 2017. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 71