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Hear (or watch!) Nathan Carterette play Bach's Goldberg Variations LIVE at IPR, Tuesday @2PM

When pianist/ composer Nathan Carterette plays the Goldberg Variations in our Cedar Falls studio on Tuesday, March 13th, you can listen on-air, or stream the video at our Facebook page. Carterette has performed the Goldbergs live on radio before (using Mr. Rogers' old piano at Pittsburgh's WQED), but this is the first time you can watch if you choose.

Carterette has played the Goldbergs in our state - at the Englert in Iowa City, where he now lives. He'll be performing the work in South Korea on March 21st, then recording it later this year.  As a pianist, Carterette has performed in such venues as Weill Recital Hall in New York, the Gasteig in Munich, and Drake University, as part of its Keys to Excellence series. He has premiered piano works by Dafydd Llewelyn, James MacMillan, and Quentin Kim (which he has also recorded), and is himself a performed choral composer.

When Bach published these Variations, he didn't mention his student Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, whose name was added by posterity based on a dubious legend. Instead, Bach called the work "Keyboard exercise, consisting of an aria with diverse variations." Bach did mention "music lovers," saying that he wrote the work "for the refreshment of their spirits."

Today, no work of music seems to refresh quite so many people's spirits so thoroughly. You've probably heard a recording or two, but if you haven't experienced the Goldbergs being done live in real time, here's your chance - listen to IPR Classical Tuesday, or go to Facebook to watch!

Barney Sherman is a Senior Music Producer and Classical Music Host