From: Mike_Quigley@mindlink.bc.ca (Mike Quigley)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Glenn Gould Edition Begins!
Date: 15 Sep 92 22:05:45 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada

The initial volumes of the Glenn Gould Edition are out, much to the dismay of
my pocketbook. I'm  not too crazy about the way some of this material is
presented. Mainly, I wish the CD's could be issued individually. Having already
got about 45 CDs (including several multi-CD sets), LPs and cassettes of Gould,
it's going to be very hard to avoid duplicating things.

For example, the 2-CD volume of stuff by Richard Strauss contains the Ophelia
Leider sung by Schwarzkopf (I already have it on a double CD from Japan of
Gould's Silver Anniversary), the piano music (already have it on a single CD)
plus Enoch Arden. It's a bit much to pay $22 just for the last one.

This isn't the first time Gould's material has been treated in what, for me, is
a rather screwy way. I fondly remember a release on LP and cassette of
Beethoven sonatas where pieces were split between sides of succeeding records
and tapes (this also happened with some of the Glenn Gould Legacy series --
another series which adds to the duplication problems). There was a more recent
release of Gould doing the Handel harpsichord music, coupled with Bach's Art of
the Fugue, which I already have in a set with the Bach keyboard concertos. And
then there's the complete piano music of Schoenberg (which I still have on LP),
which has appeared complete on CD and almost complete in the Legacy series.
Agh!

This project, which will last over the next two years will contain, according
to the enclosed blurb, "not only the complete CBS catalogue but also includes
previously unreleased studio recordings. In addition, Sony Classical has
acquired the entire radio and television material which Glenn Gould recorded
for the CBC from April 1, 1955 onwards.... Also documented are some mono
television soundtracks of particular historical value. To complete the edition,
there are live recordings from concerts in Toronto, Buffalo, Baltimore,
Salzburg, Moscow and Leningrad ... and from the Stratford Festival. Glenn
Gould's television and film productions will appear on VHS and Laser Disc as
part of Sony Classical's Glenn Gould Video Collection." Each of the CDs has
some nonsense (removable in the middle of each booklet) about the digital
technology used to produce the reissues.

Anyway, I bought four volumes, the Beethoven Concertos (I already have the
First with Golschmann -- by the way, the picture of Golschmann in the booklet
sure looks like Leonard Bernstein! -- but don't have any of the others), the
Bizet/Grieg/Sibelius 2-CD one of which I have nothing, a single CD of
contemporary Canadian music of which I have the works by Morawetz, Anhalt, and
Hetu already, but couldn't pass up him playing the unreleased Ombres by
Vancouver composer Barbara Pentland and Piano Sonata No. 2 by Fartein Valen. I
also got a single CD of Glenn Gould the composer, a recording made a couple of
years ago which includes his Lieberson Madrigal, String Quartet, Op. 1, Two
Pieces for Piano, Sonata for Bassoon and Piano, unfinished Piano Sonata and "So
You Want To Write A Fugue?"

Double Agh!!