The Goldberg Variations: Meditations On Solitude

Hello, and welcome to The Goldberg Variations: Meditations On Solitude.

This is a filmed performance created to be experienced online, and we look forward to sharing it with you.

This new work brings together poetry, music and visual art in an uplifting and thought-provoking journey through J. S. Bach's iconic Goldberg Variations. Among the variations are poems that illuminate unusual angles on solitude from 19 authors ranging from Wordsworth, Woolf and Keats to Rilke and Hesse. The work shows that throughout history and across artforms, solitude can be beautiful, rewarding and even necessary for creation and self-discovery.

Directed by British orchestral conductor Jonathan Berman, this film features:

Sir Simon Russell Beale reading the poetry,

The Ysaÿe Trio playing their own arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and

Kristina Feldhammer in her own photographic artwork.

“The Goldberg Variations: Meditations on Solitude" was created, rehearsed, filmed and edited during lockdown -- and is a new type of concert hall experience designed especially for audiences watching from home.

It is 83 minutes long and made in high definition. So please, find a comfortable place to sit and plug in your best earphones or speakers. You'll want to listen to this with the best audio you've got access to.

Critics said: 

"An imaginative antidote to isolation... the texts certainly contained some stunning insights on solitude [...] The real glory of the film is the performance from the Ysaÿe Trio, who display an astounding virtuosity... hugely enjoyable." ★★★★ The Telegraph

This work is also featured in The Guardian's weekly "Lockdown listening: classical music and opera to stream at home" and in Apollo Magazine's weekly picks of digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.