Sébastien Llinares from Toulouse and Nicolas Lestoquoy from Lille met at the prestigious Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. These two young and brilliant guitarists formed the Duo Mélisande and chose to take on an unprecedented transcription for a guitar duet, adapted from J.S. Bach’s famous masterpiece the Goldberg Variations, initially written for the harpsichord. The result is an original virtuoso chamber music performance with great depth, complementarity and nuance. This thrilling recreation is a reminder of the physical similarity between the plucked strings of the harpsichord and those of the classical guitar.

The passion and recklessness of youth was no doubt needed to take on this unprecedented transcription of one of the masterpieces of a musical genius of the western world.

Through Goldberg Variations for the harpsichord (988 BWV, 1740), the most prominent member of the Bach family laid a new cornerstone within this great work, now recognised as the epitome of baroque musical tradition. With transcriptions for the piano, organ, harp, string orchestra, consort of viols or string trios, this virtuoso piece for keyboard with 32 variations (studies) only found its place in history with the fiery interpretations by Glenn Gould in 1955.

Drawing inspiration from American musicologist Rosalyn Tureck, who stated that “Bach’s music is essentially abstract and not dependent on specific instrumental sonorities,” Sébastien Llinares and Nicolas Lestoquoy played on the similarity between the plucked strings of the harpsichord and those of the guitar to use a contemporary transcription by Italian guitarist and conductor Benedetto Montebello. Duo Mélisande use modern guitars by Australian Luthier Caldersmith to go beyond the rich harmonious sounds and complexity of the contrapuntal score. Their complementarity, fervour, unified sound and nuanced style “add their own twist and contribution to the indestructible edifice” of the Goldberg Variations.