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J.S.Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988

A golden start to another glittering musical year.

There has never been a harp album like this. It’s another first for Catrin Finch, the “Queen of Harps” in her mission to extend and develop the harp’s repertoire, and bring it to a wider audience. The launch of Catrin Finch’s CD of JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the harp is a golden beginning for what promises to be another golden year for UK music on an international stage.

Still in her 20s, Catrin has become perhaps the world’s supreme ambassador for her chosen instrument. Since being inspired at the age of five by Marisa Robles she has gone on to achieve all the accolades available. She was appointed Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales, reviving an ancient tradition that had lapsed during Queen Victoria’s reign.

Bach’s monumental work of 1741 sums up the entire history of Baroque variation form. It is unquestionably the most encyclopaedic composition ever written for harpsichord. Yet music of such greatness can also be enjoyed when painted in different colours (there have been versions for strings, cimbaloms, even accordion!), and gains further lustre when dressed in the shimmering colours of the harp.

Catrin Finch is so much more than a ‘mere’ harp virtuoso; with her exuberant stage presence she is a true star personality, as she showed when she recently presented a definitive history of the instrument for BBC4. Her musical interests spread far beyond classical confines and her brilliant artistry is often heard in popular, jazz and folk music. She is also in great demand as a teacher, and is visiting professor at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

No stranger to the recording studio, Catrin Finch already has many albums of extraordinary diversity to her credit. None however conquers such a musical mountain as does the first disc of her new recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She gives the first performance of a truly remarkable new arrangement of Bach’s Goldbergs, which have never previously been played, let alone recorded, on the harp. As Catrin herself says, “It’s an epic journey”, but one she’s found immensely satisfying. Arrayed in the harp’s sparkling tonal palette the variations can never have sounded more dazzling. As with any great structure there are infinite detailed pleasures to be savoured. Among countless felicities Catrin pinpoints Variation 25 - Wanda Landowska’s “black pearl” - which she describes as “incredible, quite sinister in a way. Playing it, you almost forget to breathe”.

No project could be more appropriate as a DG debut for the supremely talented young Welsh phenomenon, Catrin Finch. This new CD was the first recording undertaken at Acapela, the new state of the art recording studio near Cardiff, launched last year by Catrin and her husband Hywel Wigley. That it has been taken up by the internationally renowned classical music label Deutsche Grammophon is a testament to Catrin`s mastery and talent.

While the world may be in recession, the music scene is continuing to flourish. Following the CD’s launch, in February Catrin begins a concert tour that will take her to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cambridge, Angelsea, Aberystwyth, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Bristol and back to London (dates below). The Goldbergs will then be aired at concerts throughout Europe.

In addition to the CD, Catrin has arranged and edited a Goldberg Variations book of sheet music for harpists. It has been published by Alaw Music Publishers as part of ‘The Catrin Finch Collection’. Copies are available via www.alawmusic.com


FEBRUARY 2009 Tour Dates
5th CAMBRIDGE – St. John`s College,
6th EDINBURGH – Greyfriars Kirk
13th ANGLSEA – Ucheldre a.c.
14th ABERYSTWYTH – St. Michaels Church
15th CHELTENHAM – Pittville Pump Room
19th STAMFORD – Arts Centre
20th BRISTOL – St. George’s
21st ACAPELA – Cardiff
22nd LONDON – Royal Academy of Music, Dukes Hall



Recorded at Kissan Studios @ Acapela, Cardiff, Wales, March 2008