Bach's famous piano works played by one of his most famous interpreters
Johann Sebastian Bach: "Goldberg Variations"
Aria with 30 variations, BWV 988
Evgeni Koroliov, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) himself entitled his work, which later became timelessly famous under the title "Goldberg Variations", simply "Piano Exercise". Legend has it that a count at the Dresden court who could not sleep (or did not want to sleep) commissioned the piece from Bach around 1740 so that a harpsichordist named Goldberg could play it for him at night. Bach apparently had a lot of confidence in the then 13-year-old child prodigy Goldberg - himself a pupil of his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach! The result is not only a masterpiece of music, but also a journey into the depths of the human soul, a quiet dialog between complexity and clarity, between structure and emotion. Each variation has its own character - from dance-like lightness to meditative depth and explosive virtuosity.
Evgeni Koroliov
born in Moscow on October 1, 1949, is regarded as an outstanding figure on the international piano scene. Without any spectacular posturing, Koroliov impresses with his intellectual penetration of the works, in the service of which he places the diversity of his pianistic and interpretative skills.
His repertoire ranges from Bach to Viennese Classicism and the works of Schubert, Chopin, Debussy through to Classical Modernism, Messiaen and Ligeti.
He has a particular affinity with Bach's works and played the complete 'Well-Tempered Clavier' in Moscow at the age of seventeen. Since then, Koroliov has frequently performed Bach's great piano works in cycles, including the 'Clavierübung' and the 'Art of Fugue', which he has recorded on CD. The composer György Ligeti said of this recording: "If I could only take one work with me to a desert island, I would choose Koroliov's Bach, because I would listen to this record over and over again until my last breath, starving and dying of thirst."
Koroliov has played in the great halls that belong to the Olympus of the music world, such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Herkulessaal in Munich, as well as in Hamburg, Paris, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, the USA and Canada, and many more. He has performed at numerous festivals: Rheingau Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Montreux Festival, Kuhmo Festival in Finland, Glenn Gould Festival Groningen, Chopin Festival Duzniki in Poland, Budapest Spring Festival and "Settembre Musica" in Turin. He regularly performs at the Stuttgart International Bach Academy Festival.
