Featured: Glen Gould Goldberg Variations

The year is 1742--the middle of the late baroque era. Society and the world are changing. There is a strong religious devotion on one side, but a growing interest in science on the other. The Ars Rhetorica of Aristotle (art of rhetoric) is the base of many art disciplines, both religious and secular. The understandings of the world around us are changing as Galileo, Kepler and Newton are laying the foundations for science as we know it. Clocks and time calculation have reached a high level of perfection. Is it any surprise that Bach would draw from these disciplines and in his own scientific and mathematical calculations compose music where every musical element is carefully placed  to create a complexity of expression with a numerical perfection? It takes a complex mind to interpret this work and perform every nuance with finesse, precision, and intense emotion.Gould's masterpiece of performance is one every pianist should study.