Re: GG: The Unpublished Recordings of Glenn Gould

["Baldwin, Daniel" <baldwin@baermarks.com>]

        The most egregious example of SON's rip-off pricing is the Toccata
set, which is approx 43 minutes on disc 1 and 37 minutes on disc 2, for a
grand total of 80 min (the length of one CD filled to the max; the
Parmentier and Troeger sets each fit on one CD).The GG set lists at Tower
for 33.98! (a whopping 42.47 cents per minute). I believe that the Haydn
Sonata and French Suite double sets are pretty skimpy, too. But GG is a big
seller, and SONY knows that we suckers will pay the big $$(as I did in all
three cases). In the same vein, check out the price/minute cost of Beatles
and Rolling Stones CDs.
        Just as an example of an excellent price/minute ratio for what is
(at least according to the reviews)a top-rank performance with good sound:
the Bernard Roberts set of both bks of WTC on Nimbus lists at $30.98 for 4
discs, totalling 257 minutes --12.05 cents per minute!

-----Original Message-----
From: Bradley P Lehman [mailto:bpl@UMICH.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 6:45 PM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: GG: The Unpublished Recordings of Glenn Gould


On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, Bradley P Lehman wrote:

> - Melodram [Brahms 1 with Bernstein]

p.s. I think this one was also briefly on Arkadia.  But now it's readily
available on Sony anyway.

The other GG Brahms 1 that definitely needs to come back is the 1962 with
Baltimore/Adler that was on Music & Arts.  Strikingly different from the
one with Bernstein.  Maybe Sony could make a disc that has that and the
Brandenburg 5, also 1962, also Baltimore/Adler.  Just a smidge over 70
minutes putting the two together, and a convenient pairing.

Would Sony do that so nicely, or find a way to charge double as a premium
two-disc set including some other short thing?  The empty space on the
disc makes money.  On the Beethoven 6th symphony disc, Music & Arts found
room for 10 minutes of Mendelssohn...Sony parsimoniously gives just the
symphony.  They stuck the Mendelssohn into a two-disc set that is a
slightly expanded version of a single-disc collection on M&A....  When all
this shuffling is over and timings are added up, the Sony discs are on
average considerably shorter than the M&A releases, and the buyer had to
buy at least one or two extra pieces of plastic at full price.  (Guess we
shouldn't complain too loudly, as this stuff is at least available again,
but the total price keeps going up for a person who wants all or most of
it.)

Bradley Lehman | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ | Dayton, VA, USA