Bach: Fourteen Canons on the First Eight Bass Notes of the Aria Ground from the "Goldberg Variations", BWV 1087, Reger: Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 107

The Marlboro Recording Society was established to capture the collaborative spirit of the Marlboro Music Festival, an institution founded in 1951 in Vermont by Rudolf Serkin, Adolf Busch, and others. This release, MRS-12, captures live performances from the festival, which was renowned for its intensive rehearsal process where established masters and rising young musicians worked together as peers. The philosophy was to prioritize the chamber music experience over commercial polish, resulting in recordings that emphasize spontaneity and the collective discovery of a score.

The album pairs the structural rigor of Bach's Fourteen Canons—a work rediscovered in the 1970s after a long period of obscurity—with the late-Romantic lyricism of Max Reger’s Sonata in B-flat Major. By grouping these works under the Marlboro banner, the society highlighted its mission to explore both foundational Baroque counterpoint and lesser-known repertoire. The recordings were received by critics as quintessential examples of the Marlboro style: technically precise yet deeply personal, reflecting the dedicated, often informal atmosphere of the festival’s mountaintop campus.