Goldberg Variations

Is there more perfectly formed Baroque music than Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations"? Numerous self-respecting pianists have attempted them. Glenn Gould twice. And most recently, Víkingur Ólafsson and Lang Lang, to name just a few. Named after the musician Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, born in Danzig in 1727, the 30 variations on a G major aria theme with a common bass melody are an absolute pinnacle of the art of variation, against which ...