The temptation is great to give a new sound universe to a score as wonderfully inspired as that of Goldberg Variations. The fashion grew from the success of Dmitri Sitkovetsky’s magnificent trio version. Surprisingly, this same transcriber missed the enlargement for string orchestra, a magnificently successful exercise by Bernard Labadie. Recently, Trevor Pinnock revealed to us the poignant work of reinvention by Józef Koffler carried out in 1938, when the Goldberg were barely known. After such a gem, the main challenge is to remain calm, polite and measured when trying to describe the macedonia suffered here for 80 minutes. Due to the Brecon Baroque harpsichordist, the thing serves Bach in few places (the well-rendered French side of the Variation 16) and above all resembles a hodgepodge where the different individuals of the whole, Podger in the lead, come to strut alternately. In short, Bach serves as support for a pedantic, ugly and crude parade.
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