Pre-order now on CD. The album will be released on 24th April 2026.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, arranged for violin, French horn, bass clarinet, and marimba, form a new project by the exceptional horn player, conductor, and tireless innovator Radek Baborák. The arrangement by Czech composer Tomáš Ille was commissioned by Baborák, who invited his long-time colleagues and friends to collaborate on the studio recording: violinist Dalibor Karvay, until recently concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and bass clarinettist Petr Valášek, also a member of Clarinet Factory. A new collaborator is the internationally renowned vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev, a composer and arranger and a long-standing member of Gidon Kremer’s chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica.

The recording offers a fresh perspective on one of the most iconic works of the global repertoire, transcending both genre and interpretative boundaries. In Radek Baborák’s words, „performed in this line-up, the Golberg Variations resemble a conversation between four friends who are discussing one central theme. Figuratively speaking, they approach it from the perspectives of the individual instruments and their particular characteristics. At points, they stand in sharp contrast to one another, while at other points they seem to have come to an agreement. There are passages where all the instruments apart from one stop playing, as if to hear out what that single voice has to say. At other moments, they all sing along, happily citing folk songs together. The music that even after centuries remains an endless source of inspiration and creativity as well as romanticized legends imply, just as the music of other composers like Bach (and there have not been many like him), something that surpasses it while foregrounding the non-randomness of all creation and the meaningfulness of all good deeds and human existence as such. Whether they are performed by a soloist or by ensembles of different sizes, the Goldberg Variations always represent an artistic and technical challenge.”