Zing Went Strings on ‘Goldberg’ Variations

Bach’s “Goldberg� Variations has a curious history, and so do recordings of the work.

Composed in 1742, partly to ease the insomnia of a well-heeled aristocrat, the work--a theme with 30 variations--has stood as an Everest of keyboard difficulty. Many virtuosos have kept respectful distance. Recordings have been few. Call it the “Rach 3� of the recital world.

Then in 1955, a little-known 22-year-old Canadian pianist named Glenn Gould made a debut recording that stunned the world. Gould played the “Goldbergs� with such effortlessness, invention, imagination, spirit and wit that generations of pianists and music-lovers have been affected.

Gould’s original recording has never gone out of print. He recorded the work again in 1981, and that distinctive version--quite different from the first--also turned out to be a bestseller.

One musician swept away by Gould’s interpretations was Dmitry Sitkovetsky, a Russian violinist who founded the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra, headquartered in London, in 1990. Sitkovetsky made a string version of the “Goldbergs�--not exactly a common idea--which his orchestra will play in two Southland appearances this week, at South Bay Center for the Arts in Torrance on Friday and the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Saturday.

“I loved the piece so much, I just wanted to be part of it,� Sitkovetsky said, speaking by phone from a hotel room in Milwaukee.

He first arranged the work for a string trio. It was, he says, “an exercise for my own amusement.�

He felt the work lent itself to a trio because so many of the sections involve three independent voices. “Every third variation is a canon for two voices and a bass. So already nine variations out of the 30 are strictly a three-voice situation. Then you have quite a lot of [other] variations for three voices, occasionally variations for four, and more often for two.

“It was a labor of love. I spent two months in delightful company--Bach and Gould. I was influenced more by the second recording because it’s so singular and determined in its approach. The two recordings really are from two different people, two different worlds.�

The trio version was recorded and took on a life of its own, though mostly among musicians. Later, after he had formed the New European Strings, Sitkovetsky decided to expand his initial transcription. A CD of the results, which Nonesuch Records released in May 1995, turned into a surprise hit, selling 50,000 copies in its first six months and reaching No. 6 on the classical charts.

The numbers are all the more surprising because the notion of such a transcription flies so hard in the face of the current orthodoxy for “authenticity� in Baroque performances. It was bad enough that Gould played his bestseller versions on a modern piano instead of a harpsichord. But a version for a string orchestra?

“It was high time to do it because people were becoming more Catholic than the pope,� Sitkovetsky said. “They were going so far into this purifying land of non-vibrato, gut-stringed instruments. But if you look carefully at those high priests of the movement, they make their name in 18th century works, then move into the 19th century repertory. All these great vegetarians suddenly develop this great taste for meat. The truth of the matter is that instruments in those days were inferior. So was the playing.

“I’ve heard criticism, ‘Well, have you studied Baroque performance practices?’ I never did. But you listen. When you hear an outstanding performance--which is few and far between--you absorb things, even unconsciously. I draw from whatever is available.�

As for instrumental authenticity: “I do play a 1717 Stradivari violin, the ‘Reiffenberg,�’ he said, “though since I’ve played it for so many years, it would probably be called the ‘Sitkovetsky’ if I sold it. I also have three different types of French bows from the early to middle 19th century.�

Sitkovetsky was born in 1954 in Baku, Azerbaijan, when it was part of the Soviet Union. His father, Julian, who died of cancer in 1957, was a famous violinist. His mother is another famous musician, pianist Bella Davidovich. He grew up in Moscow, leaving to study at the Juilliard School in New York when he was 22.

“Musicians from the Soviet Union were not usually regarded as Bach specialists,� Sitkovetsky said. “In a way, that was a blessing in disguise. I went into the territory without any preconceived notions. Anyway, I believe that there are basically only two kinds of music--good and bad, not serious versus pop or anything like that.

“All kinds of confusion result when you divide music by those labels. You wind up living on a rather limited diet. I grew up with broad ideas about music. Even though all kinds of music were not allowed officially, I probably knew all the Beatles’ songs from memory. They had been smuggled in on cassettes.�

Sitkovetsky still has an active solo career as well as playing in chamber groups, but his string orchestra is “a creative laboratory, where I do all my experiments.�

Because the repertory strictly for a string orchestra is so limited, Sitkovetsky writes a lot of transcriptions--�altogether over 20,� he said. These include Dohnanyi’s Serenade, Opus 10, originally for string trio, and Tchaikovsky’s string sextet “Souvenir de Florence,� Opus 70.

Even so, the “Goldbergs� are special. “Normally I conduct my orchestra--except [for the “Goldbergs�]. I sit down as concertmaster, and my concertmaster becomes principal of the second violins.�

“They are certainly the greatest set of variations ever put on paper, if not the greatest work ever put on paper. Hearing them is like living a whole life span in one hour.�

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“GOLDBERG� VARIATIONS AND OTHER WORKS, New European Strings Chamber Orchestra, Dmitry Sitkovetsky conducting. Friday: 8 p.m., South Bay Center for the Arts, Marsee Auditorium, El Camino College, Torrance. $18, $14. Phone: (310) 379-9725. Saturday: 8 p.m. at Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $22-$35. Phone: (714) 553-2422.