Die Goldberg-Variationen, das wohl bekannteste Werk für Tasteninstrumente von Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), stellen einen Höhepunkt barocker Variationskunst dar. Über eine kunstvoll verzierte barocke Arie entfaltet Bach ein Wunderwerk von 30 Variationen - heitere und besinnliche, kantable und fugierte, tänzerische sowie virtuose.

This CD is the fruit of the love affair that developed in Paris between Leonard Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France in the 1970s. Beside long-admired studio recordings, featuring Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexis Weissenberg among the soloists, it presents live performances completely new to the catalogue: a 1975 programme to celebrate Ravel’s centenary – with Bernstein himself as soloist in the G major piano concerto – and orchestral suites taken from two of Bernstein’s most celebrated and brilliant works, both infused with jazz: the film score On the Waterfront and the landmark Broadway musical West Side Story.

A superb modern jazz pianist, Stanley Cowell is a highly regarded artist whose work often pushes the boundaries of forward-thinking hard bop without ever falling into completely avant-garde territory.