Re: GG : Goldberg v. 1981

["John P. Hill" <jphill@frank.mtsu.edu>]

Michael:

After Steinway CD318 was dropped (shipping accident) in the
early 70's, Gould had it worked on and re-worked several times
in an effort to retreive it's unique combination of "hair-trigger"
touch and pristine tonal quality.  According to GG, the various
operations were never completely successful and he became less
and less attached to it as a recording instrument.  By the time
of the '81 Goldbergs, it apparently had slid into some disrepair.

Since the '81 Goldbergs were to be recorded in NYC (not in
Toronto, as most of the recordings from the 70's were), GG may
have felt that it was time to locate an instrument in NYC that
was more to his liking and would not require shipping from Toronto.

IMHO, the Yamaha represented on the '81 disc is *no match* for
the tonal quality of CD318, even in it's post-operative condition.
Check out the reissue of the Inventions and Sinfonias for a taste
of how wonderfully clean and responsive 318 could be (yes, even
with that bizarre midrange hiccup!).

There's something about the way that NY Steinway D's sound coming
off tape.  There's a "stringiness" to the octave below middle C
and a definition/clarity to the two octaves above that you just don't
get from other instruments.  CD318 wins for piano sound, in my book.
There's an almost magic synergy between Gould's conception of Bach and
what came out of that instrument.  Luckily, a good bit of it made it
to tape and has survived more or less intact.

Has anybody heard CD318 recently at the National Library in Ottawa?

jh


On Tue, 20 Jan 1998, Michel Crucifix wrote:

> 
> 	Hello minors,
> 
> 	Can anybody explain to my why did GG use a Yamaha piano (I think) in place
> of the usual Steinway ? One cannot say that the Yamaha is bad,... but the
> CDU33A was so wonderful (even after its crash in ??? 1972 ? ).
> 
> 	Thank you,
> 
> 	Michel.
> ___________________________________________________
> Michel Crucifix , Courriere, Belgique
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