Bach's music has always attracted arrangers and orchestrators - such as Stokowski, Elgar and Busoni, to name but three. Regardless of its original version, Bach's music has an expressiveness, drama and architectural logic that lends itself well to extended orchestral sounds. Bassoonist and conductor Robin O'Neill immersed himself in the Goldberg Variations, which he discovered through Glenn Gould's recordings in the early months of the Covid lockdown. Soon after, the idea of making an orchestral arrangement began to occupy him as he began to hear instrumental and orchestral sounds in the piano version. Since the biggest challenge was to reclothe the music without damaging the subtle complexity of the piece, O'Neill, after much thought and experimentation, chose instruments that Bach himself would have chosen for the solo parts. His new interpretation of the Goldberg Variations offers a mixture of fully scored variations interspersed with concertante variations with two, three or four solo instruments, sometimes approaching the style of the St. Matthew Passion. This arrangement was completed at a difficult time and, in O'Neill's words, was written in the hope that it would express the joy and comfort that Bach's music brings to both performer and listener.