GG Partita No.5

[Anne Smith <smithqa@nexicom.net>]

From: Neil:

> Has anyone heard the CBC Bach 5th partita ?

I have this as well as the recording GG did for CBS in 1957.  I much prefer
the original recording which was done for the CBC in 1954.  GG also
preferred
this version.  I think that his reasoning for this is very important.
The liner notes of the CBC recording have a quote from him in which he says
that because this Partia was part of his recital repertoire "it became
contaminated with this concert hall experience....... The reason for that
is very simple.  During those concert experiences I had to project that
particular piece to a very large audience in most cases and, as a
consequence, I had added hairpin -cres. and dim., and similar un-Bachian
affectations...."

Some of the CBC cds were made from what GG called live recordings.  The only
audience was the microphone but "radio broadcasting still observed the
first-note-to-last-and damn-the-consequences syndrome of the concert-hall".
In other words no take twoness.

Anne