Hello and I'm a

a musical music podcast.

My name is Joshua Wilerstein. I'm a conductor and I'm the artistic director of the Lozan Chamber Orchestra in Luzon, Switzerland.

This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music.

Before we get started, I want to thank all of my Patreon sponsors for making season six possible.

If you'd like to support the show, please head over to pat.com Sticky Notes Podcast.

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If you had to describe Bach's Goldberg variations in one word, what would that word be?

Renewic, Infinite. Perfection. Spiritual. In 1741, Bach published a piece called Aria with diverse variations.

Little did he know that an apocryphal story and two landmark recordings would make this piece

one of the most beloved and nearly mythical works in all of Western classical music.

The piece I'm talking about is no longer referred to as Aria with diverse variations.

It is now referred to almost exclusively as the Goldberg variations.

It is a piece of contradictions and complexities that have been studied almost to their molecular levels.

It is a piece that has captured the imagination of hundreds of pianists and harpsichord players

and terrified them in equal measure.

It's a piece with a remarkable variety of character, but which rests almost exclusively in one key for nearly 80 minutes.

It's a piece of mathematical precision that nevertheless reaches constantly to a kind of cosmic

level of inspiration. And by the way what the piece isn't is a piece written for

...