Re-Release of Gould's Two Goldberg Recordings Mark the Pianist's 70th Birthday Year

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote what became known as the "Goldberg Variations" at the request of the Russian ambassador to the court of Dresden in 1741.

According to biographer Johann Nicolaus Forkel, the ambassador suffered insomnia from an illness and asked Bach to write something that would be "of a quiet and at the same time cheerful character, that would brighten him up a little on his sleepless nights." The ambassador had his keyboardist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, play it again and again.

Today, we can hear the Goldberg Variations played again and again by the eccentric genius Glenn Gould, whose career was bracketed by the piece. Marking the 70th birthday year of the late Canadian pianist, Sony Classical and Legacy Recordings have re-released Gould's two vastly different depictions of what Bach called "Aria with Different Variations."

The three-CD set, "A State of Wonder," also includes an insightful interview by critic Tim Page — Gould's last before his death on Oct. 4, 1982, at age 50. [read more]