FW: GG Eaton Auditorium

[St-Laurent Gilles <gsl@nlo.nlc-bnc.ca>]

The last entry in the GG database re. Eaton Auditorium is the following:

File no./No de dossier:  32 43 12
Series/Serie: Correspondence, outgoing
Author/composer//Auteur/compositeur:  Gould, Glenn
Title/Titre:  Semon, Corinne,  CBS Records, New York, USA
Content/Contenue:  account for Eaton Auditorium recording sessions, 1981 Aug 
1-3
Date:  September 9, 1981
Medium/Media: original typescript
Pages:  1 leaf

The recording session was for the Beethoven piano sonata Op. 27. No. 1 for 
which we have the outakes.

I would imagine that Eaton's has its archives in Toronto somewhere.  If I 
can find some time, (and if there are any archivists left, as the chain has 
just gone into bankruptcy protection while they're restructuring) I'll give 
them a call to try to get some information re. the Auditorium.

Gilles St-Laurent
Music Division
National Library of Canada
 ----------
>From: f_minor-approval
>To: Junichi Miyazawa
>Cc: _f_minor mailing list
>Subject: Re: GG Eaton Auditorium
>Date: February 28, 1997 10:16
>
>
>Hi, Junichi:
>
>The Kazdin book contains some good details on recordings
>made at the Eaton Auditorium.  It's a bit vague on exactly
>when the structure was finally demolished;  the process
>seems to have happened in stages.
>
>I have seen some recording credits for Eaton dating from
>1980, but I've not seen any for 1981.  My impression is
>that the structure had been complelely torn down by that
>point.
>
>Perhaps our pal Gilles in Ottawa has some archival data
>on this.  Or, perhaps someone at Sony has access to session
>logs from the Italian Concerto sessions held in '81.
>
>jh
>
>
>On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Junichi Miyazawa wrote:
>
>> Dear Gouldians:
>>
>> In the liner notes of the newly released the GG Edition
>> SMK 52 620, which carries GG's Bach rarities,  Michael
>> Stegemann mentions the 1981 recording of the Italian
>> Concerto, which unfortunately is not on the disc:
>>
>>   . . . According to Columbia's Artist Contract Cards, a new
>>   recording of the work was due to have been made on
>>   August 29 and 30, 1981 (Gould's earlier recording dates
>>   from the end of June 1959), although it could not have
>>   been made in the auditorium at Eaton's department store,
>>   as indicated in these cards, since the latter had been torn
>>   down in the spring of 1980.
>>
>> Coud it not have been made in the Eaton's Auditorium?
>> What is the source of its being torn down in the spring of 1980?
>>
>> On the contrary, I have two counterevidences:
>>
>> 1)  . . . With the building of other concert halls in Toronto,
>>    its use declined in the 1960s and 1970s, and it was
>>    closed in 1976 prior to the Eaton's College Street
>>    closure 5 Feb 1977.
>>         In the ensuing commercial redevelopment of the
>>    building, the organ was removed and the auditorium's
>>    seating was reduced to 100.  Glenn Gould was the only
>>    user of the auditorium at the time.  He had begun to
>>    record there in 1971 and continued to do so until
>>    August 1981. (*Encyclopedia of Music in Canada*,
>>    second edition, 1992, s.v. "Eaton Auditorium")
>>
>> 2) GG letter to Corinne Semon of CBS records
>> dated September 9, 1981, which reports the
>> account for Eaton Auditorium recording sessions,
>> 1981 Aug 1-3 (unpublished, found in the database of
>> the Ottawa GG archives)
>>
>> I cannot decide which is the case.  Did he record the Italian
>> Concerto in Eaton or not?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Junichi
>>
>
>