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Bach: The Goldberg Variations is the debut album of Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. An interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), the 1956 record launched Gould's career as a renowned international pianist, and became one of the most well-known piano recordings. Sales were "astonishing" for a classical album: it was reported to have sold 40,000 copies by 1960, and had sold more than 100,000 by the time of Gould's death in 1982. In 1981, a year before his death, Gould made a new recording of the Goldberg Variations, sales of which exceeded two million by the year 2000.

This 1955 reinterpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations introduced the world to the classical pianistic genius of Glenn Gould. At the time, it seemed unusual for Gould to have chosen one of the baroque maestro's more obscure works for his major label debut on Columbia Records. However, with the 22-year-old virtuoso at the helm, this vibrant adaptation of The Goldberg Variations became one of the best-selling and most popular piano recordings of the 20th century, and a breakthrough for Gould. While Gould did enshrine these astonishing aria variations into the contemporary canon, he did also take spectacular liberties with the source material. Not only did Gould not play the composition on the harpsichord as intended, he accelerated and altered the pieces tempos to unconventional degrees.

Gould's breakneck runs and dramatic polyphony would have shocked many a purist, but his daring reinvention of Bach's masterpiece did receive extraordinary praise and became among the best-selling classical albums of the era. — The Analog Vault

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Label: Sony Classical, Columbia Masterworks
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Mono, Gatefold, 180 gram
Country: UK, Europe & US
Reissued: Sep 25, 2015 / Original Release: 1956
Genre: Classical
Style: Baroque
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File under: Classical