RE: GG plays Byrd & Gibbons

[Tim Conway <tpconway@ozemail.com.au>]

Hello Junichi,

Many thanks for your excellent explanatory reply. My further 
answers/comments are:

>The Byrd/Gibbons album from Japan you have must be:
>
>   CBS/Sony 28DC 5287 (rel. 1989)

Yes, that is the album catalog number.

>The booklet has two articles.  One is a general annotation
>by a Japanese musicologist Tadashi Isoyama, the other is
>the one written by GG (tr. Atsuo Kaneko), which was originally
>prepared for the LP and nowadays you find in the _GG Reader_
>(in English) or Monsaingeon's translations (in French).
>
>All the strange English words all belong to GG's article.

Thanks for the information. One of the few books on GG I have been able 
to find is Tim Page's 'GG Reader'.

>I am curious where and how you bought Japanese GG discs?

I lived in Hong Kong from 1974 to 1991. I bought the majority of my CD 
collection there. As you may know, HK was then (and maybe still is) 
almost the No. 1 counterfeit city in the world. One could never be sure 
that one was buying genuine LPs and tapes (and books, clothing, 
jewellery, spare parts for expensive cars, medicine, anything). Some of 
the copies were very poor but others were very close to the original. 
Luckily, the counterfeiters were not very interested in classical music; 
they preferred to concentrate on high-selling pop music.

When Philips and then the major Japanese recording companies started 
releasing the first CD players and CDs in (I think) 1982, the 
counterfeiters found it impossible to make cheap copies. However, they 
soon learned how, which was why one could buy really cheap CDs in HK from 
about 1985 onwards. Also, the counterfeiters started making classical CDs 
because suddenly it was 'fun' for people to listen to a symphony without 
having to turn the disc over halfway through. The classical market in HK 
expanded rapidly. Many tourists came to HK to buy cheap classical CDs.

All this is to explain that the many Japanese versions of GG and others 
that I bought may or may not be genuine. I _think_ and hope they are 
genuine CBS/Sony releases but I cannot be sure. I am sure that they are 
GG because nobody can imitate his humming (or playing), but if my CDs are 
fakes I cannot be sure that the pieces are in the correct order. The 
counterfeiters were so hasty that they would often transpose tracks or 
even complete recordings (I once bought a tape supposedly of one pop 
group that instead had a completely different pop group's songs on it). 
That is why I asked about the 9 pieces on the parchment but only 8 listed 
in the liner notes of the Byrd/Gibbons CD.

>I don't recommend you to trade your Japanese discs with
>others, because they are very rare items.

This is news to me! Thank you for the information. I will now withdraw my 
offer to swap them for the English versions, and I will look after them a 
bit better, even if some of them are fakes.

>In Japan, the series of GG recordings were released three 
>times:  there are three generations:
>
>1. around 1985:  bundled on the 2- , 3,- or 4- CD box basis.  
>                      (probably AAD)
>
>2. around 1989:  49 titles on the original LP album basis using the
>cover photo of the original albums (probably AAD)
> #Even the Silver Jubilee Album (with A GG Fantasy) was released.
>
>3. since 1992: Glenn Gould Edition (ADD; Super Bit Mapping)
>The same as in Canada, US, Europe)
>
>The first generation was taken over by the second, 
>and the second by the third.  So the one you have with the beautiful
>cover jacket is no more available.
>
>I want to emphasize the difference of the sounds between the 
>first/second and the third.  The third generation, GG Edition is 
>supposed to be the better transfer, but someone might prefer
>the sound of the older transfer.  The sound of GG Edition is 
>very clear, but it doesn't mean a fidelity to GG's intention:  there 
>
>might be different insert takes used to compensate defects in 
>the original master tape (actually a friend of mine found one 
>different note in the SBM recording of Bach's Sinfonia #2 in 
>c minor from the one in the older generations and LP, I will 
>inform it to you in another posting).
>
>I recommend you to keep your Japanese CBS/Sony discs
>as well as the GG Edition for enjoyments of various comparison.

Very interesting. I haven't checked all of my CDs but I have a number of 
Generation 1 and Generation 2 GG releases but none of Generation 3 (I 
left HK in 1991 and came to Australia). If ever I find enough money I 
will buy the complete GG Edition released over the last 4 years or so for 
comparison with the Generations 1 and 2 versions.

Once again, my thanks. Best regards,

Tim, Upwey
<tpconway@ozemail.com.au>