Thibaut Garcia and Antoine Morinière Release New Album “Goldberg Variations”
Today, on October 31, 2025, the new album Goldberg Variations by guitarist Thibaut Garcia, in collaboration with Antoine Morinière, is released on Erato/Warner Classics.
At the center of the project stands Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, which Garcia and Morinière have arranged for two guitars. In this version, the two French musicians combine elements of modern and historically informed performance practice, offering a fresh perspective on this Baroque masterpiece.
“Baroque music written for keyboard instruments has always fascinated us,” said Thibaut Garcia, who first attracted attention in 2018 with his album Bach Inspirations. He has performed as a duo with Antoine Morinière for over a decade. Their two guitars were crafted from the wood of a single tree—a symbol of the sonic unity that defines their interpretation.
The recording was the result of a long period of preparation. Garcia and Morinière studied the Goldberg Variations at the Abbey of Solesmes, where, following the Benedictine tradition, they worked in silence. This meditative atmosphere shapes the character of their performance, in which the two guitars intertwine like the two hands of a harpsichordist.
The booklet includes a foreword by writer Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, who emphasizes the spiritual and cyclical dimensions of Bach’s music:
“Even though the Goldberg Variations are not liturgical music, they remain a sermon—just as valid as the spoken word, if not even more powerful.”
The album Goldberg Variations reached No. 1 on the Apple Classical chart shortly after its release.
Listen and Buy the Album
In an article on Rondo from November 1, 2025, Guido Fischer wrote:
"If that’s not pure luxury: In order to sound almost like identical twins on the guitar, Thibaut Garcia and Antoine Morinière enlisted French luthier Hugo Cuvillier for an exclusive masterpiece. [...] In terms of timbre and tonal color, as well as resonance and response time of the plucked notes, the two guitars and guitarists form a perfect unity.
Even though the two musicians let all the characteristics of their instruments bloom – from lively to introspectively pensive – subtle yet organically integrated references to the harpsichord keep flashing up throughout the soundscape."
Fischer also emphasized that this version of the Goldberg Variations ranks among the best transcriptions of the work.
In Le Monde on November 7, Marie-Aude Roux wrote:
"Both players are in their thirties and have just released an album that will leave a lasting mark on the discography: Thibaut Garcia and Antoine Morinière have recorded a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations – a project likely to be as defining as Glenn Gould’s revolutionary piano version seventy years ago."
"Their playing is marked by remarkable clarity and tension, and one senses that the two guitarists understand each other intuitively. The alternation between polyphonic precision and delicate sonic poetry brings a new transparency to the work – and at the same time proves that Bach’s music can transcend any instrumental boundary."