Verne Edquist

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

>Is Verne Edquist still alive? Personally,
>I'd much rather hear him talk about GG. After all, he was the one who used
>to fetch the "double-doubles."
>
>Kristen

Verne is indeed alive and well.  Just saw and had quite a long chat
with both him and Lorne Tulk on Tuesday night.  They were
invited to attend a meeting of the Audio Engineering Society
were Peter Cook (from CBC Records) and I talked about the
digital audio restoration work which was required to produce
the CD of the 1954 Goldberg from a 40 year old acetate disc
from the Gould Collection.  I just wish I'd had much more time
to talk to them as they're both so sympathetic and have such
wonderful stories.  During the presentation I played a tape
from the Gould collection of  GG singing at full volume the
orchestral part (including the tympani bits at the begining) of
the Strauss Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra with GG playing a
hopelessly and I really mean hopelessly out of tune Chickering.
 The exuberance of the playing and singing is absolutely
infectious.  Anyway, it was quite touching to see Lorne's and
Verne's reaction.

Gilles St-Laurent
Music Division
National Library of Canada