J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Arr. Trio Zimmermann for Violin, Viola & Cello)

Playing three perfectly blended Stradivarius instruments, Trio Zimmermann (violin, viola and cello) give us their own transcription of Bach’s mighty Goldberg Variations. Attuned to each other with remarkable sympathy, they achieve a quite wonderful homogeneity of approach, matched by a lovely, warm recording. Bach’s variations are immensely complex, yet at the same time powerfully emotional, and their finely tuned intricacy unfurls with extraordinary clarity in this arrangement, the logic of the argument followed with oratorical skill. There is also so much beauty in Trio Zimmermann’s playing that when the end arrives, with exquisite inevitability, it’s hard not to feel enormously satisfied.