The Glenn Gould

A joint venture between Sony Classical and WDR, Michael Stegemann's The Glenn Gould Trilogy: A Life is something truly different and noteworthy. The three-disc set beautifully melds excerpts of Gould's performances, spoken interviews, narrated text, and personal correspondence into a surprisingly coherent whole. Listeners who find it annoying to try to listen to music while someone is talking over it should still give this trilogy a try.

What you will find on this disc is A) contrapunctus I-IX played on two different organs in 1962; B) contrapunctus I II & IV from a1981 TV broadcast; C) contrapunctus IX XI & XIII in mono from a radio broadcast in 1967; D) the unfinished contrapunctus XIV from what may or may not be the same TV broadcast as B); and as a final filler E) a prelude and fugue on the name BACH from a studio recording in 1980. Items B)-E) are given on the piano.

This special edition 5 CD box set brings together all of the documentaries in the CBC Records catalogue featuring Glenn Gould in a role he excelled in, that of the radio artist. Through almost a decade of international touring and public performances (1955-1964), Gould regularly played studio recitals, appeared with the CBC’s radio orchestras, and gave on-air interviews and talks on musical subjects. Gould’s exit from the concert stage in 1964 released his full energy into the electronic media. His multi-layered ‘contrapuntal’ structure in documentary-making was extremely innovative at the time of its creation and remains entirely unique in that landscape.

This remarkable set, culled from the archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the early years in which Glenn Gould emerged as a major classical pianist (1951–55), packages together five discs previously issued singly between 1994 and 1999. The only new CD in the collection is the second Bach disc, which features typically scintillating performances of the Partita No. 5, Three-Part Inventions, Italian Concerto , and the Concerto in D Minor. Of the various discs here, the only one to contain works not issued commercially by Columbia-CBS-Sony is the second Beethoven CD (originally released in 1997 as CBC 2013).

The recording industry of the 20th century saw stars become legends and albums become icons of popular culture. Completed in a total of only four days and released in January 1956, Glenn Gould s début recording of Bach s Goldberg Variations is without doubt one of the most significant and successful classical recordings in the history of the gramophone record.

Although Mozart purists may not appreciate the irreverant interpretations by Glenn Gould, it certianly provides new insight into these well worn pieces. In many places, his performances completely change the conception of the music. That alone makes this worth having - it isn't another faithful run through, but a rethinking of these works by Mozart. Surely, his lack of fondness for Mozart shows, but I think it contributes to the excellence of these performances. This is Mozart as composer equal with performer. These are good.

Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece.

This disc is likely to have a specialised appeal it is not just Gould but Gould on unfamiliar territory. The disc contains Haydn's last 5 sonatas, extracted on to 1 CD from a set that has only 1 more piece in an expensive 2-disc format. If you know Gould's work you will not be surprised by anything here. He was the least 'romantic' in style of all the great virtuosi, his evenness of touch was legendary and he provides a certain amount of vocal obbligato (not something that bothers me). He uses a piano you could play Rachmaninov on and that does not bother me either Richter, Serkin and Horowitz used similar.