The Goldberg Variations BWV 988 consists of an aria with thirty variations. The
collection has a complex and unconventional structure. The variations are built on the
bass line of the aria, rather than its melody, and the musical canons are interpolated
according to a grand plan. There are nine canons within the thirty variations, one placed
every three variations between variations 3 and 27. These variations move in order from
canon at the unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs – unison and octave,
second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth. The ninth canon stands alone.
Bach’s other keyboard works include the Italian Concerto BWV 971 for two-manual
harpsichord, seven Toccatas BWV 910-916 and six Little Preludes BWV 933-938.
BACHE
Walter Bache (1842-1888) was born in Birmingham in 1842 and died in London on 26
March 1888. He was Liszt’s most important English pupil. He first met Liszt in Rome in
1862 and, after studying with him for three years, returned to England to promote his
music. He remained a pupil of Liszt and regularly attended his masterclasses until Liszt’s
death in 1886. This period of twenty-four years was much longer than any other pupil
spent with Liszt.
Bache often heard Liszt play his own works. In March 1865 he heard the composer play
his Sonata in Rome for a group of pupils, and perhaps in April 1869 in the Boesendorfer
salon in Vienna.
Bache, as pianist, conductor and teacher, promoted Liszt’s music in England at great
personal and professional cost to himself and at a time when Liszt’s music was often met
with indifference and even open hostility. Bache performed Liszt’s Sonata in his annual
all-Liszt concert on 6 November 1882. He performed it again in the same hall in London
in his next annual all-Liszt recital on 22 October 1883, which was the date of Liszt’s
birthday.
With the approach of 1886, and with it Liszt’s seventy-fifth birthday, invitations came
from many parts of Europe requesting Liszt’s presence. Liszt wrote to Bache from
Rome’s Hôtel Alibert on 17 November 1885: ‘Certainly your invitation takes precedence
over all others. So choose the day that suits you and I will appear. Without Walter
Bache and his long years of self-sacrificing efforts in the propaganda of my works, my
visit to London would be unthinkable.’ Liszt was in England from 3 April to 20 April
- His visit was a great success and Liszt himself played the piano at a reception in
London.
Liszt died at Bayreuth on 31 July 1886 and Bache died, also after a short illness, on 26
March 1888. The London Times obituary referred to the financial sacrifices Bache had
made in support of Liszt over the years, acknowledged his value as a teacher, and
continued: ‘As a pianist, Mr. Bache represented the school to which he belonged, and
although he did not play with the brilliance of Sophie Menter, Stavenhagen, and others of