Re: GG Edition "First authorized release"

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

>Sony acquired the
>rights to distribute any of the CBC stuff from the time Gould
>signed his contract with Columbia in 1955.
>(...)  [W]hen the label
>rights owner issues material that it maybe didn't originally
>have the rights to, it can claim that it was the first authorized
>release.

Makes sense, although the word "authorized" is still very misleading
(perhaps intentionally).  The M&A releases were indeed authorized and
legitimate according to the appropriate authorities at the time they were
issued.  It would be more accurate for Sony to assert that their GG Edition
contains "The only currently authorized release" of this material.

>I can't make any comparions to the Music and Arts material.
>According to the Gould discography, they were all withdrawn
>in 1991, not all that long after they were released (1987).


Probably as part of the deal where Sony cornered the market to arrogate its
own authority....

I captured about half of the M&A's; they're quite good.  An especially great
feature of them is the booklet notes by David Breckbill and Kevin Bazzana:
perceptive critical assessments.

It's particularly amusing that in Sony's "First authorized release" of the
Brahms quintet (which is at least the fourth legitimate publication of it,
as I pointed out) the annotator quotes the commentary of M&A's Breckbill.

Those pirated Italian releases of various things are also definitely worth
hearing, despite having no notes and often bad sound.

Unfortunately, having run the competitors out of town, Sony hasn't brought
much of the essential apocryphal material back to the catalog: the Brahms 1
with Baltimore/Adler, the Brandenburg 5, various other Bach concertos, the
Cantata 54 with GG conducting from the wacky "harpsipiano", the Gibbons from
1956, the Schoenberg Suite / Mozart sonata 10 / Sweelinck Fantasia from
Salzburg, the Bach English Suite 1 / Partita 6 / French Overture, the Mozart
concerto 24 with G L Jochum, the Schoenberg concerto with Mitropoulos, the
Beethoven 3 with Karajan, ....

The Brahms 1 with Adler (Oct '62) is particularly fascinating to compare
with the Bernstein (Apr '62).  Start with the analytical clarity of the
Bernstein, trade in the navel-gazing rumination for fire and flow, make the
gestures more naturally sweeping, give it much better recorded sound, an
orchestra that sounds comfortable with the interpretation, and that begins
to describe it.  They also get through the Adagio in 9:32 where everybody
else since the 1930's takes 13 to 16 minutes.  (I do like the Bernstein,
too, but these two performances are *extremely* different for being the same
pianist and only six months apart.)

Bradley Lehman, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
Dayton VA