Goldberg Variations

IAN COLLINS

King of Hearts, Norwich (Norfolk and NorwichFestival)

Besides the two scheduled stars in this airing for Bach's sublime work, allegedly written to cure a patron's insomnia, there was a third that was wholly unscripted.

Masterly Matthew Halls was paired with a magnificent harpsichord - Alan Gotto's recreation of an instrument made in Lyons almost 300 years ago by Pierre Donzelague. (And bravo Angie Maddigan for a blissful lid painting.)

For those of us who know these 30 variations chiefly through Glenn Gould's recordings on piano - and who listen to our CDs mostly at night as we thought the composer intended - this was doubly a new treat.

Played on the two-keyboard instrument as Bach surely imagined, there was fresh depth and resonance to music that works on me like reflexology.

Vowing to make the health service a top priority, PM Brown should inject Bach throughout the NHS. On a cloudy Sunday morning in Norwich, we all left happier and healthier than when we arrived.

And as Matthew played the first variation a blackbird in the courtyard sang back. Sang Bach, in fact.