The Goldberg Variations is one of the summits of Johann Sebastian Bach s works for harpsichord. The cycle was published as the fourth in a series of Keyboard Exercises in 1741 by Bach s publisher and friend, Balthasar Schmid, in Nuremberg. Maria Yudina (1899 1970) performed the Goldberg Variations in concert for the first time in October 1967, three years before her death. In January 1968, her rendition was recorded on Firma Melodiya. Her ascetic, brilliantly simple, and deep performance of the great composer s work is exceptionally convincing. The key to Yudina s religious interpretation of the Goldberg Variations can be found among the notes she made on the margins of the clavier: that she played Bach with the Gospel in my hands.