Re: GG Recordings (published by CBC)

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@UMICH.EDU>]

Lain wrote:
>Over all, I like listening to the CBC recordings because some of them
>contain live performances that Sony did not record.  However, sound
>quality for some of them are questionable.  Even so, the collection is a
>must for any GG buff.

I agree that they're a must; young Gould was "loosened up" and musically
direct in ways that he wasn't always later.

I have to make a nit-picking comment about that phrase "that Sony did not
record."  Sony (as such) did not record a single note played by Glenn
Gould.  They simply bought up the rights to his work after he was gone.
Most of Gould's recordings were done by Columbia Masterworks or CBS and
published by them:  first on records and tapes, and then (after Gould's
death) some on CD.  [There were no Gould CDs during Gould's lifetime.]
Other recordings from concerts or television programmes were issued by
various labels: some legitimate, some pirate.  All kinds of great stuff
showed up in this free enterprise milieu.

Then Sony acquired the rights to everything (except the early CBC stuff),
and used its monopoly to put all other Gould issues out of business.
They've done a pretty respectable job with most of the material, yes, but
they've done so at premium prices, cashing in on their Goulden Goose.
And they put together things that weren't originally together, repackaging
everything (sound recordings and video footage) in strange ways.  To some
of us who had most of Gould's recordings before $ony got hold of things,
it's always seemed like a sellout....

And some of us out here just don't like hegemony in general.  Sometimes
competition is healthy.  :)


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot