Gunther Rost - J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988 (2009)

Bach's Goldberg Variations for harpsichord, BWV 988, have been played on the organ before, with the justification that Baroque musicians often viewed keyboard instruments as, if not interchangeable, at least potentially amenable to substitutions. That's the the reason advanced here by organist Gunther Rost, however. Instead he outlines, in an extensive booklet essay (in German and English parallel texts), an argument that the work, although composed for the harpsichord and to all appearances secular in intent, is actually an elaborate piece of religious symbolism whose significance is brought into relief, one might say, by playing it on the organ. The vogue for numerological and symbolic interpretations of Bach's music, especially strong in Germany, certainly rests on solid foundations; both the general aesthetics of the time and Bach's own personality tended toward hidden meanings and toward symbolic crossings of the sacred-secular boundary of the sort that Rost is generally trying to identify here. But listeners will have to decide for themselves whether the idea can be taken this far. An abridgment of Rost's argument would both distort it and rob it of its all-encompassing glory, but suffice it to say that even the quotation of a song about cabbage and turnips in the quodlibet that takes the place of the final canon is worked into the sacred framework. Curiously, though, what one might regard as the most religious aspect of the work's structure, the clear organization of the variations into sets of three doesn't play a role beyond the appearance of a canon in every third spot. Rost's reading rests entirely on circumstantial evidence, most of it coming from the manipulation of small integers; there isn't a shred of physical confirmation that would permit a definitive evaluation. If you enjoy this kind of speculation, Rost's recording will appeal to you; his performance, on an extremely colorful contemporary organ in Paris, is designed to emphasize the piety he hears in the work, and the engineers from the Oehms label display it beautifully.