Re: GG: Art of Fugue

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

> >Just an interesting note, seeing as how Gould loved seperating the
> >musical lines in Bach's fugues etc: the Julliard String Quartet recorded
> >the Art of the Fugue, available as a double CD set from Sony. [...]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the early-80's Canadian Brass recording
this time around.  It was dedicated to the memory of Gould, and according
to the notes, inspired by his work.  Clear textures, on the fast side. 

> 
> >I'll definitely pick up Gould's edition once it's released!
> 
> THis Feb. release: am I right in thinking that this is the organ version
> that used to be on a CBS tape cassette (only?) *many* years ago?

It's been on CD for years.  I have it in the CBS Masterworks 2-disc set
M2K 42270, which includes the concertos 1-5 and 7, Italian Concerto, and
Art of Fugue (1-9 only, of course).  Dated 1987, pink cover.  I managed to
grab most of that "Glenn Gould BACH" series in this low-priced edition
(dallied too long and missed the English Suites), and three of the four
"Glenn Gould Legacy" double boxes, and the Beethoven and Mozart Odyssey
boxes...then CBS sold out to Sony, everything went out of print, and is
now coming back on higher-priced and less-full discs!  (But remastered)

I've also seen a single-disc edition (seems to be for outside the US only?
gray cover) that puts together this Art of Fugue and the Handel suites on
harpsichord: a handy way to get all the official non-piano recordings at
once. 

That pitch problem I mentioned yesterday with Contrapunctus IX...it's
almost but not completely fixed on the "Glenn Gould BACH" set (and it's
better than the pitch problems in the Toccatas and French Suites, where
certain splices are obvious because of pitch changes).  There's still a
drop of a cent or three from the end of VIII to the beginning of IX.  But
it's not nearly as bad as it was on the LP. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley Lehman, bpl@umich.edu       http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/  
"It doesn't really matter if the color's exactly right 
   if the picture feels right when you finish the print." - G. O'K.