Cast
Zhu Xiao-Mei — Pianist
Program notes
The great pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei performs in concert very sporadically, devoting much of her time to long periods of preparation for each of the challenging musical masterpieces, which she calls “mountains of the soul”. She offers her interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in the celebrated Leipzig church where the baroque composer spent much of his career: the St. Thomaskirche. Legend has it that the work was commissioned by the Count von Keyserling to treat his insomnia, with his harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg as its performer. While the story is likely a myth, the musical monument presents keyboardists with some of the greatest technical challenges of the Western classical music repertoire: challenges to which Zhu Xiao-Mei is more than equal!
