The Goldberg Variations are “a journey through a human life,” says composer and saxophonist Peter Vigh. He arranged J.S. Bach’s masterpiece for his own Berlage Saxophone Quartet: four players, eight saxophones, and thirty variations on an immortal aria.

With subtle use of colour and imagery, the Berlages enhance their fresh perspective on Bach’s music.

Although Bach composed the variations for harpsichord, they speak to everyone — and work beautifully on a wide range of instruments. Now, they find new expression on the saxophone, invented more than a century after Bach’s death.

Whether Bach wrote the Goldberg Variations to ease the sleepless nights of a count, as an old legend has it, or simply “for the enjoyment” of listeners, their power has not diminished over three centuries. The Aria at the beginning and end embodies birth and death: “the source from which we come and to which we return,” as Vigh describes it. In between, Bach and Berlage reveal the full spectrum of joy and sorrow that shapes a human life.