GG hit list

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@UMICH.EDU>]

Danielle asked:
>What wld listpersons select as Gould's top 10 best recordings of choice
>for sheer musicality, interpretational excellence, or whatever other
>eclectic reasons?

- Salzburg recital 1959: Sweelinck fantasy, Schoenberg suite, Mozart 330,
Goldberg Var

- Brahms intermezzi

- Schoenberg solo piano works

- Berg sonata

- Beethoven "Moonlight" (sonata 14) and sonatas 30-32, and bagatelles

- Scriabin sonatas and miniatures

- The Byrd/Gibbons album (eccentric but spirited and convincing)

- Haydn sonatas, especially his 1958 recording of #49

- Beethoven/Liszt symphonies 5 & 6

- Gould's own solo piano transcriptions of Wagner


And yes, I left out all his Bach (except the amazing Goldbergs from
Salzburg) deliberately, because I think all the above are better.  High
points of his Bach are the partitas, 1955 Goldberg Var, and some of the
WTC.

The Beethoven concertos 1, 2, and 4 almost made my top ten; so did the
Prokofiev sonata 7 and some of the Hindemith...


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot