Search - Glenn Gould, Bach :: Cto Italien / Chromatic Fantasy - 70th Anniv Edt

REALMS OF GOULD

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 12/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gould's tonal palette, though subtle, is not particularly wide. If he has used the sustaining pedal at all in the 78 playing minutes of this disc, I missed it, and it is patently impossible to use the damper pedal with the left leg crossed over the right, as in the photograph on the back of the box. That said, Michelangeli himself did not have more complete finger-control than Gould did, and the machined perfection of Gould's trills and other ornaments, and the diamond brilliance of his scales and runs, are a phenomenon in a very special class of their own. This disc is the Gould we know and either love or do not love. He is on his familiar 18th-century territory with J S Bach, C P E Bach and Scarlatti. He has a manifest empathy with the 18th-century idiom, or at least the early 18th-century, and I rarely see much point in elaborate comparisons with other interpreters. With Gould in early 18th-century music it is likely that if you admire his manner in general you will simply swallow his performances whole, as I tend to do. This disc contains both the Italian Concerto and the Chromatic Fantasia, and I was astonished to learn from the liner note that Gould disliked both. I was thrilled by his dramatic reading of the Chromatic Fantasia and his high-speed account of the last movement of the Italian Concerto, and I can only wonder what on earth he didn't like about them, so much conviction is carried by his playing. I had not heard him in Scarlatti before, and in all three sonatas he is relaxed and winning, as always his own man and nothing like Michelangeli or Lipatti, still less Horowitz. There is a certain amount of quiet vocalising, but it is at least tuneful (unlike Serkin's), and it gives me no problem at all. There is also a knowledgeable and instructive liner-note on Gould's recording career, although some contradictions should have been sorted out as between pages 4/5 of the note, the note-writer's text and the back of the record-box as regards what fugues are played with the various fantasias (correct answer `none', a great relief to me personally in the matter of the rather dull effort that usually tags on to the Chromatic Fantasia). The recording technology used is something called Super Bit Mapping, and whatever it is it might have been invented specially for Gould."

Reissued Gould Leftovers

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 07/18/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sony has recently decided, yet again, to reissue all of Glenn Gould's recordings for Columbia, this time around in flavor-of-the-month original LP jackets. Make no mistake though, this is the same exact music, with no additional remastering, as its predecessor in the "Glenn Gould Edition," although now at mid-line instead of full price. As far as the content of this CD, the material has always felt like the leftovers of the remaining Bach works that the fickle Gould consented to play, with some Scarlatti and CPE Bach Sonatas tossed in to fill up the disc space. Even though, individually some of these pieces are closer to Gould's heart than other works that Columbia basically made him record in order to have the "Complete" Partitas, Toccatas, Well-Tempered Clavier, etc., overall the CD lacks the consistency and unison of efforts like the French or English Suites. This CD is not to be missed by Glenn Gould fans though, but they probably own one of the earlier CD incarnations anyway."

Lifeless sound, lifeless performance

Giordano Bruno | 04/23/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am a fan of Gould (owning and liking many of his CDs) but occasionally he does disappoint. The Marcello concert is a complete disaster -- dry, emotionless performance as if played by a robot (you literally wouldn't tell the difference from a pre-programmed computer). Gould conveys none of the beauty and sensuality of this music. Reminds me of the terrible thing he has done to Bach's prelude #8 in Clavier I. The CD has generally poor, flat sound."