Re: GG The Art of Glenn Gould

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

+AD4-For years, I tried to explain to my Dad that you +ACo-don't+ACo- shuffle the
+AD4-classical CDs in the stereo. :-/ There's a reason the movements are in
+AD4-that order+ACE- Playing them out of order just doesn't work.
+AD4-
+AD4-That's why I'm glad I have the older CD version of GG's Goldberg
+AD4-variations. The whole thing is on a single band. The next time Dad
+AD4-wants to shuffle the classical music, I'm slipping that one in there.

Sounds like your dad needs his very own copy of Apollo 18 by They Might Be
Giants.  That disc is designed explicitly to be listened to on shuffle play.

One of the most gradually annoying classical shuffles I've heard was an
occasion in a restaurant.  Their background music was a collection of slow
movements from 19th century piano-and-strings chamber music.  It was all
good stuff such as the Schumann quintet and the Brahms quartets, but it was
+ACo-only+ACo- the slow movements+ACE-  Furthermore, the breathing space between
selections was shorter than two seconds.  The music was high enough quality
that I wanted to listen closely to it, but the pieces were never really
finished.  Argh.  Nobody else at the table understood my concerns.

But I don't think GG would have objected too strenuously to having his own
recordings in a shuffle, given what he wrote about liking background music.
And the disc of the Brahms intermezzi is essentially shuffled to begin with,
isn't it?