This performance causes me to wonder whether Forkel, in his much-quoted report, got hold of the wrong end of the stick and that the Goldberg Variations were used by Count Kayserling not as an antidote for his insomnia but so as to have something worth staying awake for. Pinnock's reading is certainly the liveliest there has been of this great work, and effectively makes the point that veneration for Bach's genius does not have to be solemnly portentous: the sheer revelling in ingenuity and invention that bubbles out of this set is a welcome contrast to the hieratic attitudes of certain well-known Bach practitioners. One's initial reaction here may be that speeds are probably faster than Bach (or Goldberg) would have adopted; but Pinnock's apt articulation and pointing of detail never suffer thereby. I still feel that Var. 25 would be just as expressive without being so free rhytmically, and that taking the theme so slowly is at variance with the overall concept; but otherwise this recording—which on CD captures every sound (musical and otherwise) of the Ruckers instrument with the utmost fidelity—is pure pleasure.'