Bach: 3 Keyboard Concertos

Bach: Keyboard Concertos (Expanded Edition)

Bach: Italian Concerto & Partitas Nos. 1 and 2 (Great Perfor

GOULD PLAYS BEETHOVEN: 32 VARI

GOULD GREATEST HITS

GOULD PLAYS BACH: PIANO CONCER

GOULD PLAYS BACH: 6 PARTITAS

Glenn Gould & Chamber Music

WAGNER (trans. Gould) Siegfried Idyll, (orig.) 1 Siegfried Idyll, (trans.) Die Meistersinger: Act I Prelude. Götterdämmerung: Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey • Glenn Gould (pn, cond); Toronto SO members 1 • SONY 52650 (70:59)


I can think of no worthier nomination to Fanfare’s Classical Hall of Fame than this conductorial debut of the late, exceedingly great Glenn Gould, and also his very last recording. Gould, of course, admitted in the late 1960s to being a closet Wagnerite who often “worshipped at the shrine,” and in 1973 he set down piano transcriptions of three favorite pieces. Meistersinger was a stunner the first time I heard it, and coming off a concert with Jorge Bolet playing the Liszt transcription of Tannhäuser —and he really pounded the thing out—I was left in shocked, disappointed silence after hearing Gould’s shimmering, nuanced, hyper-contrapuntal version of Wagner’s most Baroque work. Since then I have come to admire it to no end, a brilliant conception that brings out things you will not hear in any other recording, orchestral or not. Wagner’s orchestration actually gets in the way of everything there, and Gould admitted that when he prepared to play it, it was a question of “what do I leave out this time,” as there were not enough hands, even his own long fingers, to cover all the parts. “Dawn” is just as persuasive if not as extroverted in its intricacy, and the piano sounds just wonderful.


Siegfried is matched in its slow tempo only by Gould’s orchestra reading. Here he turns this transcription into a marvelous tone poem, drawing each and every strand of meaning out of every bar, always cognizant of the overarching structure and subtle phrasing, both Gould trademarks. You can almost come to accept this piece as meant for the piano, so convincing is his reading. Siegfried for chamber orchestra, in its original guise, is given to us in one of the slowest readings on record (Gould liked to temper the tempo in many works), and one can hear the Toronto players straining to bring every ounce of intensity to Gould’s concentrated leadership. Somehow he makes it work, and as a testimony to his extraordinary talent and career, this beautifully conceived album is mandatory in any collection worthy of the name.


FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter

Piano Transcriptions: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 & 1st Movem

Bach: Toccatas, BWV 910-916

This CD contains both ADD and DDD recordings.
Glenn Gould was probably the most individual pianist of this century. Often criticized throughout his career for his interpretations, his influence cannot be denied. He was a musician of the highest order, and capable of profound playing. Originally released in 1980 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Gould's association with CBS, this set features both standard Gould fare (including a previously unreleased "Italian Concerto" from 1981) and twentieth century works by Strauss and Scriabin alongside Canadian Radio Broadcasting programs made over the course of Gould's career.
Gould played the music of many composers, but had a keen interest in the music of Strauss. His pairing with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the Strauss 'Ophelia Lieder' is certainly the highlight of the first disc. Liszt's transcription of the first movement of the Beethoven "Pastoral" symphony is an interesting novelty. The CBC programs--"A Glenn Gould Fantasy" and "Critics' Call-Out Corner"--on the second disc are truly funny and personal, giving us a glimpse into Gould the man. There is a multitude of information on these discs, but it is well worth the time invested. The comprehensive liner notes serve as an excellent guide to this set, a welcome addition to any collection.

Glenn Gould Live in Salzburg & Moscow

J.S. Bach: Partitas, BWV 825-827, Vol. 1 (Glenn Gould Annive

J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concertos, BWV 1052, 1055 & 1056

The rich Glenn Gould discography is enlarging of a series of recordings performed by the artist between 1960 and 1963 for the television and now are presented for the frist time on disc, after a digital remastering. Glenn Gould had a personal propension for some Beethoven, specifically Variations, Op. 34 and Op. 35, of which he often performed live when he was younger. His interpretation of the two movements Adagio ma non torppo and the fuga of Sonata No. 110 are really something unique in his career as a performer and artist. These masterpieces are now available for the public and Gould fans.

The Glenn Gould wonderful musical talent was very precocious in all his provocative originality. Goul’s approach to the traditional repertoire left the audience completely amazed and admired at the same time. His Beethoven and mainly his Bach had that was predictable both for performance and choice of repertoire. In this CD , some very rare recordings are collected, realized by Gould when he was just twenty for the Canadian Radio

Glenn Gould's 1964 recording of the Bach Two- and Three-Part Inventions needs little introduction to collectors, for the simple reason that Sony has reissued it umpteen times on CD. However, this latest incarnation via the label's newly reconstituted Great Performances series yields its fullest-sounding transfer yet. As a result, the piano's infamous middle-register "hiccup" effect that Gould charmingly describes in the booklet note is more pronounced, along with background rumble (the subway?) masked in previous editions.

But what's most important is that Gould divines more character and meaning from the Inventions than many pianists who've looked upon these works as little more than teaching pieces. I especially like how Gould creates a unifying arc by juxtaposing each two-part invention with its three-part counterpart in the same key, sometimes dovetailing non-stop from one piece to the next.

In addition to the aforementioned sonic improvement, Sony includes three unedited takes for the F major, B minor, and F minor Sinfonias that stem from the 1955 Goldberg Variations sessions. Although Gould rejected the recordings, they nevertheless came out on Sony's 2005 deluxe "Birth of a Legend" Goldbergs reissue. Three complete performances of these pieces from the same sessions appear here for the first time. If you've heard Gould's 1955 CBC broadcast of all 15 Sinfonias (CBC PSCD 2005), you'll know to expect more spontaneous and pianistically oriented interpretations than the relatively astringent 1964 remakes. For example, the B minor proves friskier and lighter in touch than the later version, while conversely, the F minor is a little broader, with more melodic inflection and discreet yet ravishing dabs of sustain pedal. God only knows what bells and whistles Sony's next Gould Bach Inventions re-re-re-re-issue may bring. Until then, the present release is the one to get.

– Jed DIstler, ClassicsToday.com

This selection is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording.
This selection contains a track featuring excerpts from Tim Page's 1982 audio interview with Glenn Gould about the 'Goldberg Variations.'

GOULD IN CONCERT: LIVE IN SALZ

Gould plays Rennaissance & Baroque

Also available on standard DVD

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

A film by Yosif Feyginberg

The date is May 2nd, 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. This is the story that Glenn Gould in Russia tells by revealing documents from the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that had remained classified for years. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, parts of the original recordings of Gould’s concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well as a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing an aspect of Glenn Gould’s artistry that few people are aware of.

DETAILS:

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM 2.0 (Historical material: Mono)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Korean
Running time: 60 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

Also available on Blu-ray

A film by Yosif Feyginberg

The date is May 2nd, 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. This is the story that Glenn Gould in Russia tells by revealing documents from the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that had remained classified for years. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, parts of the original recordings of Gould’s concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well as a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing an aspect of Glenn Gould’s artistry that few people are aware of.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM 2.0 (Historical material: Mono)
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Korean
Running time: 60 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:
GLENN GOULD: THE RUSSIAN JOURNEY • Glenn Gould (pn); various artists; Yosif Feyginberg (dir) • C MAJOR 714108 (DVD 56:00)

What could have easily been a dull and routine affair—after all, little film footage and few recordings exist of Gould’s historic May 1957 tour of the USSR—turns out to be a stunning and fascinating film that riveted my attention from first to last. Part of this documentary’s charm, and value, comes from the fact that Gould’s trip is explored in full detail, including his initial shock at not being able to sleep in a double bed and a postcard he sent back home to his dog! All of this, plus the warm reminiscences of the men and women who met him, acted as guides and/or translators, or heard him play, not to mention the actual voice of Gould himself recalling the ups and downs of his journey, adds layer upon layer to the story until you actually start to feel that you are watching a documentary made at the time, as if Glenn Gould himself had been able to participate in its making.

What caused such a furore? As this video tells us, part of it was the fact that Bach, so long a musical persona non grata in the Soviet Union for his strong association with religious works, came as a revelation to most of his Soviet audience. The hall for his first concert in Moscow—the complete Bach The Art of Fugue, a work most people had never even heard—was not even half full when he began. Partway through the first half, however, people ran out of the hall to pay phones and called friends, relatives, colleagues, and told them that they had to come down ASAP and hear this man. By the time the concert ended, the hall was packed, not only with breathless lay spectators but also with musicians, and the Russian audience went absolutely berserk. In ensuing performances, and there were several, Gould opened up his repertoire to include the other love of his life, composers of the Second Viennese School. He even gave a lecture-demonstration of their music before an audience of lay listeners, students, and even professors at the Conservatory. The entire Russian musical world seemed to want to absorb Glenn Gould like a sponge. As one of them put it, halfway through the concert-lecture on Berg, Webern, and Schoenberg, some of the students became restless; it was all a bit too new and foreign for them, and they begged him to play Bach. “We brought him back down,” the commentator said. But Gould responded positively to the rapt attention he received, and to a certain extent I think that it was upon his return to North American concert life that he became increasingly restless about performing in person because he felt that the majority of audience members were inattentive or only half-listening.

Yet his impact on the Russians, and theirs on them, went much further than just playing and talking to them. Sviatoslav Richter, at the time (as Gould relates) practically unknown in the West, went up to him after a concert, congratulated him, and invited him to one of his own. Mstislav Rostropovich then later recalls something that Richter had told him: “I can play Bach as well as Gould, but I won’t do it because it would take me too much time to rehearse it and too much concentration!”

Nowadays, there is a counter-reaction to Gould’s Bach. Once viewed as ultra-modern, crisp and unbelievably lucid in the revealing of the inner voices, it is now sometimes thought of as willfully distorted: the slow sections are played too fast, the fast sections even faster or too slow. Yet for others, Gould’s architectonic approach to the music remains miraculous simply because, for all its clarity and consistent tempo, it lives and breathes. It has feeling despite, not because, of its rapid pace. And that is what is often missing in the playing of modern-day pianists who approach Bach; yet all of them should be thankful to Gould for making it acceptable to play Bach on the piano and not only or always on the harpsichord or clavichord. The crisp, staccato sound of his particular Steinway model is forever etched in the minds of his listeners.

After Gould returned to Canada he was unable to go back to the USSR again; after 1964, the welcoming window of opportunity closed for a very long time. But he continued to talk about the Russians on his CBC television programs, to play their music (the video includes clips of him performing the Shostakovich Piano Quintet and a Prokofiev sonata), and to talk about the difficulties the Russian people faced under the Soviet system. He sent his recordings to them to be reproduced on the Melodiya label and continued to receive warm letters from those he had met and some he had not. It was, in short, a very cathartic experience for him, even if he did beg his doctor for “those little yellow pills” (valium) that calmed him down so he could take them on his trip.

This is a fascinating and extraordinarily well-put-together documentary of an exceptional trip, and time, in the life and career of an exceptional pianist. I highly recommend it.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Glenn Gould maintained a very peculiar relationship, a sort of love and hate, with Beethoven's music, which he performed out of any traditional scheme or system. This CD presents two further Beethoven rarities in live recordings by the Canadian pianist, the first being the Piano Concerto No.1 in C, op. 15, recorded in Turin, Italy on 23 January 1951 when Gould was only nineteen. The Piano Concerto No.3 in c, op. 37, with the Canadian Radio Orchestra under conductor Heinz Unger, was recorded four years later, on 21 February 1955. This very significant addition to the discography of Glenn Gould furthers the image of this eclectic, fascinating and singular artist.

Arnold Schoenberg, one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, was born in Vienna in 1874. Sony Classical is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the great composer’s birth with the reissue of 20 CDs of recordings from CBS/American Columbia. The company was a pioneer in documenting Schoenberg’s achievements and already demonstrated that commitment during his lifetime (he died in 1951). In 1940, with the composer conducting, Columbia Masterworks produced the first recording of one of his most captivating and revolutionary works, Pierrot lunaire; and in the 1950s and 60s, the label undertook a ground-breaking multi-volume series entitled “The Music of Arnold Schoenberg”. But arguably no recordings have done more to further the cause of Schoenberg’s orchestral and vocal works than those of Pierre Boulez, while none have done more to promote his chamber music than those by the Juilliard Quartet. Sony Classical now presents all of Boulez’s Schoenberg for CBS/Columbia in a 13-CD box, and all of the Juilliard’s in a 7-disc set.

Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases Mozart and Chopin along with conductor Robert Craft’s pioneering Webern recordings and the global journeys of that irrepressible musical explorer Yo-Yo Ma.

Between 1966 and 1974, Glenn Gould paid repeated visits to Columbia’s New York studio to record the piano sonatas of Mozart. Often revelatory, sometimes quirky, but always stimulating, these controversial readings tell us as much about the performer’s own endlessly fascinating musical mind and his conflicting attitudes to Mozart as they do about the composer’s genius at the keyboard. But no other classical sonatas – not even Beethoven’s – were paid the tribute of an integral recording by Glenn Gould. His delight in playing them can be heard throughout this set. Sony Classical is now reissuing the 18 sonatas and two fantasias in a remastered 4-album box.

REVIEW:

Every time I return to Glenn Gould’s set of the Mozart piano sonatas, I’m both aghast and, in some weird way, inspired. Take K310, where the central Andante cantabile rises to an awesome central climax, played staccato, but where the first movement is less Allegro maestoso than Allegro frenetico! Or there’s that strangest of beasts (in Gould’s hands), K331, the opening theme taken so slowly that it sounds as if a (very) young Glenn is tackling it for the first time, head buried in the music, humming away. Yes, things do return to a semblance of normality, though the finale is less ‘alla turca’ than a proud ‘cock o’ the walk’ Turkish trot. Then there are the two Fantasias, K397 in D minor taken at a deathly slow tempo filled with pregnant pauses, a spooky enactment with dark shadows lurking around every corner. Gould’s approach to Mozart in many respects courts extremes but I challenge you to sample any of it and not want to return, if only for a handful of spot checks. It may be outlandish but it’s also utterly fascinating.

--Gramophone (Rob Cowan)

Classical Music