Violinist Rachel Podger and the Brecon Baroque ensemble. Johann Sebastian Bach - CD Review, the 17th of November 2023

Johann Sebastian Bach - The Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (selections), arrangement by Chad Kelly.

Debut album, released on the 20^th of October

The well-known set, the Goldberg Variations, created for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach and released in 1741, suffered numerous arrangements for various instruments, but no one imagined it to be for violin, chord ensemble or wind instruments. Until now. In October, at the Channel Classics record label, the "Bach - Golberg Variations Reimagined" album was created, an arrangement by the British musician Chad Kelly, recorded for the first time by the Brecon Baroque chamber ensemble conducted by the violinist Rachel Podger.

After this transcription, Chad Kelly says: "I wanted for my arrangement to reflect a large sphere of influences. When I thought of how to use the instruments in each variation, I remembered a quote from the great instrumentalist and musicologist Bruce Haynes, who said that Bach emphasized the qualities of each instrument and he affectionately composed for each of them."

Recorded on September 2022 at the Saint John the Evangelist church in London, the record was released with the occasion of a concert which took place on the 21^st of October as part of this year's edition of the Brecon baroque music festival, whose artistic director is the well-known British violinist Rachel Podger. The advertisement for this album is going to continue in the next months with a series of concerts in London, Budapest, Brussels, Boston and Vienna.

"Through the diversity of genres - aria, concert, fugue, overture and trio-sonata - Bach's music is enriched by the elegance and profoundness of the timbre and texture. The various instrumental superpositions in Chad Kelly's arrangement and the sonority that comes from it, together with the usual impeccable performance of the Brecon Baroque ensemble" the BBC Music Magazine publishing states, while The Guardian magazine describes the violinist Rachel Podger as "an exceptional interpreter of baroque music, her album being a new way of approaching Bach's incredible music."This arrangement of Goldberg's Variations does, indeed, stand out through its freshness and originality, enjoying a remarkable interpretation, as we have expected from the experienced, 55-year-old violinist Rachel Podger, specialised in the baroque repertoire, teacher at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Welsh College of Music. Until now, she has conducted prestigious ensembles such as The English Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment or ArtedeiSuonatori, creating numerous recordings with pieces by Bach, Telemann, Purcell, Vivaldi and other preclassical composers.