JS Bach Aria From Goldberg Variations BMW 988

Returning once again to the master, Bridget Mermikides explores a beautiful Aria written for harpsichord and featuring a heavily-ornamented melody over a bassline voice.

- Bridget Mermikides

This month we return to a work by the timeless genius Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), a composer whose technical and expressive mastery continues to awe and inspire countless musicians in many styles. It’s nearly impossible to overstate Bach’s contribution to Western music, nor the technical achievement and profound beauty in his output of over 1,000 works. It’s an enduring legacy, which some argue represents one of the pinnacles of artistic achievement; so much so that when it was suggested that some of his music be included in the Voyager space probe as proof of human intelligence to extra terrestrial beings who might find it, a NASA staff member objected as “it would just be showing off”.