Robert Costin - J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (2013)

Stone Records is delighted to announce the release of its first organ recital disc, the much-loved Goldberg Variations, performed by internationally-renowned organist Robert Costin. The organ used for this performance is that of Pembroke College, Cambridge, a modern reconstruction of a period instrument dating from 1708 that has been widely used for Bach performances. Costin was the organ scholar at Pembroke, and is completely at home on the instrument of his alma mater. The piece, described on the title page of the first edition as "keyboard practice, consisting of an aria with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals", is nowadays more familiar to listeners when played on the modern piano, something which would have been inconceivable to the composer. In Bach s time, the notation für clavier was not restricted to any one type of keyboard, so he would not have been surprised to hear it on the organ, his primary instrument. The organ's unique qualities of colour, delicacy, and majesty are used to the full in this wonderfully thrilling rendition of a well-loved piece, which manages, by way of the historical instrument and the excellent performance, to shed a fascinating new light on this great work.

Costin s playing is honest and stylistically sensitive ... The organ is the 1980 Mander instrument (with some pipework dating back to 1708) at Pembroke College, Cambridge; probably the first attempt in the UK to partially reconstruct a lost historic organ. Thirty-plus years later it sounds fresh, engaging and well-matched to the ringing acoustics of Wren's chapel.