In 1963, the year before Roger Woodward won the ABC Young Performer award, an equally fine pianist, Geoffrey (Douglas) Madge won and went to Europe, undertaking further study with Géza Anda and Eduardo del Pueyo before accepting the professorship at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. And after making important debuts in London, Amsterdam and Budapest, he embarked upon a truly unique career as a pianist who was fascinated by the architecture of composition and complex counterpoint. This would lead him to work with the likes of Sorabji, Krenek, Xenakis and Penderecki and with much acclaim. Yet he was also fascinated by the history of pianism – particularly that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and especially the great Ferruccio Busoni (championing his gigantic piano concerto and the considerable body of works for solo piano which he recorded as a 6CD award-winning set for Philips in the 1980s) and Leopold Godowsky. Now Madge, after nearly 40 years of live performances, has decided to record Bach’s magnificent Goldberg Variations. 

Since Glenn Gould’s electrifying debut with them in 1955 and his remake in 1981, these stellar recordings have remained the measure...