About

This will be the first public performance of a new work by pianist and creative thinker, Gunel Mirzayeva, prior to its Premier London performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on 6th March.

Programme:
Variations on Goldberg by Gunel Mirzayeva

Gunel writes: 
The roots of my love for Bach go back to my earliest days as a child, when I was first acquainted with his music through the recordings of Glenn Gould. This inspired me to pursue my dream of learning and performing Bach’s music. Over the past few years, I investigated the fundamental aesthetics of improvisation in his keyboard repertoire and in particular the Goldberg Variations.

In my interpretation of this work, I showcase a slightly different approach to the traditional way of performing the Goldberg: first playing the original variations as edited and written in the published Urtext Edition, followed by restating each movement when playing the repeats, or by replacing the original variations with newly written material altogether. I have attempted to create a personal interpretation of this famous work, exploring my own vision of Bach’s masterpiece and addressing the found possibilities from a slightly different angle.

Gunel Mirzayeva has a Doctorate of Music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her research topic was ‘Piano Music of Azerbaijan: the evolution of style in the 20th century’. She is now exploring the possibilities offered by the integration of ‘Mugham’, Azerbaijan’s classical music tradition, into Bach’s music.