Glenn Gould still haunts performances of Bach's "Goldberg Variations." The Canadian pianist's 1955 recording on modern piano, abounding with idiosyncratic tempos, eccentric phrasing and audible humming, was a blockbuster hit. It made a name for Gould and the work itself, once considered dry and uninspiring.

Sasha Gusov Playing the variations on anything other than the harpsichord is not what Bach intended when he published the "Goldberg Variations" in 1741. Richard Egarr seeks to redress the issue in his new recording and also on his current concert tour, which includes a stop in Pittsburgh. Click photo for larger image. Egarr's sound In Egarr's performances he seeks to bring out the singing aspects of the variations through a lens of historical accuracy, by returning to the harpsichord's unexpected origins as an instrument in the lute family. Here are three samples from his new recording on the Harmonia Mundi label. Its wide release is March 14, but it will be available at Saturday's concert. Aria Variation No. 1 Variation No. 30, Quodlibet Renaissance & Baroque Society Presents: Richard Egarr, harpsichord. Where: Synod Hall, Oakland. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $10-$30; 412-682-7262.

But that album also launched an entire performing tradition on the piano. "That recording radically readjusted perceptions of what Bach could sound like, with its devastating speed, brilliance and Gouldian intellectual deconstruction -- before the 20th-century early music movement came to fruition," writes harpsichordist Richard Egarr in liner notes to his new recording of the work on Harmonia Mundi.

Period performance advocates such Egarr have been struggling to recover the work's original sound and context ever since. "The big thing about anybody tackling this piece is that you have the whole weight of the modern performing practice from Glenn Gould," says Egarr from his home in Amsterdam. "Anyone who says that does not matter is lying. It was a seminal moment."

It is not that Gould's interpretations aren't worthy or artistic, but that they don't reflect Bach's conception of the work. "I love a lot of things about Gould, but the rapid-fire sixteenth notes are incredible mechanistic, and the 17th- and 18th-century variations never varied the tempos as much," he says. Imagine Michelangelo's "David" molded in plastic, or even in precious metals and you get the understanding of what Gould's readings were to the originals. Whether you call that an ersatz version or a work of art in its own right, playing the variations on anything other than the harpsichord is not what Bach intended when he published the "Goldberg Variations" in 1741. Egarr seeks to redress the issue in his new recording and also on his current concert tour, which includes a stop in Pittsburgh on the Renaissance & Baroque series.

"It is a reclamation project for the harpsichord," he says. To Egarr, known for his vivacious playing with period violinist Andrew Manze, the problem is further complicated by attempts by harpsichordists to counter Gould with period "Goldbergs" that simply did not match his level of artistry. Egarr feels the attempt to recapture the dry, "metronomic" playing of the work pre-Gould was not an improvement. Instead, Egarr also seeks to bring out the singing aspects of the variations as much as Gould did, but through a lens of historical accuracy, through a return to the harpsichord's unexpected origins as an instrument in the lute family.

"The harpsichord's aesthetic background is the lute," says Egarr. "Others want to treat the harpsichord as an organ, but the harpsichord is a keyboard lute. Its entire repertory and figurations are from the lute."

Thinking about the instrument in that context pushes Egarr to think more in terms of vocal readings of the lines. Indeed, he conceives of the variations as "cantabile heaven." To facilitate this, he replaced the plastic plectrums on his harpsichord with seagull quills for his recording. "Once you have experienced quill, there is no going back," he says. "There is an incredible touch with the notes, it can give you soft beginning. It is a much more singing quality of attack, which is much more what Bach wanted." (Alas, Pittsburgh fowl needn't protest, as Egarr will leave his instrument at home on this tour, but he will bring the same lyrical approach to his live performances.)

With his strongly felt beliefs, it is not surprising that Egarr is conducting these days. He recently succeeded Manze as associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music in London and does guest conducting, as well. But he won't be giving up performing anytime soon.

Not when he can perform a work as resplendent as the "Goldberg Variations," an aria with 30 magnificent variations. Even the history of this mammoth work is fascinating: The tale goes that a certain insomniac count relied on a keyboardist to soothe him with nocturnal performances. Goldberg began to run out of material and so commissioned Bach for a set of variations. That tale, relayed by an early Bach biographer, is likely apocryphal. Especially when the comprehensiveness of the work -- so many different styles surveyed -- is more in keeping with the encyclopedic works characteristic of Bach's later years: works such as "Art of Fugue" and "Well Tempered Klavier."

The "Goldberg Variations" themselves begin and end with a simple, slow aria that Bach varies with uncommon creativity. But the twist that makes the work truly breathtaking is that every third variation is created by a canon, a musical technique that operates like a round (think "Row, row, row your boat"). The first canon is at the unison, the second at the interval of a second and so on. The twist on this twist, however, is that instead of a canon at the tenth ending the work, Bach inserts a magnificent "quodlibet," a humorous variation that combines folk songs, including one with the text "Cabbage and turnips have driv'n me away/ Had my mother cooked meat/I'd have chosen to stay." It is a glorious mixture of comedy and seriousness akin to the greatest works of Shakespeare.

"It is an amazing journey," says Egarr. "You start with the aria and go on this incredible journey of 30 variations, and you end up where you started. It is a cycle of life."

Performance practice is cyclical, and Egarr hopes that his historically accurate performing will bring this work back where it started, too.