Vikingur Olafsson\u2019s performance<\/a> of Bach\u2019s \u201cGoldberg\u201d Variations had everyone in a trance \u2014 including him.<\/p>\nPlaying from memory in his debut on Carnegie\u2019s main stage, he swayed in a gentle reverie and hunched over the piano so intently that he almost touched his forehead to the keys. After the final movement, audience members applauded robustly as they got up to stand shoulder to shoulder. But hardly anyone moved to leave.<\/p>\n
The \u201cGoldbergs,\u201d which Bach \u201cprepared for the soul\u2019s delight of music lovers\u201d according to the score\u2019s title page, employ a circular logic. A graceful aria in the style of a sarabande goes through 30 variations. Each movement has two sections, and each section repeats once. Every third variation is a canon \u2014 itself a looping form \u2014 and the whole, massive work closes with the same aria that started it. The variations, all but three in the same major key, utilize roughly the same harmonic progression, so listeners are lulled by the shared cadence but also dazzled by the inventiveness that masks it. The overall effect is mesmeric.<\/p>\n