no recording of musical offering by Gould?

[Jost Ammon <Jost.Ammon@telda.net>]

Look what Lesley (thanks) and the combined forces of Univeristy of Guelph
did come up with (the answer was so close): I'll leave the whole Q&A.

So does anybody know of this record, if it was occasionally released or will
be in the future? Or whom to ask for future release?


Jost
----- Original Message -----
From: Lesley Hymers


                  The Glenn Gould Web Chat Transcript

                  September 24th, 1996



        ...Phillipe von Monteton: With reference to the Global GG Web chat,
I would
                  like to pose the following questions and inform you about
my membership in the
                  Friends of Glenn Gould society.
                  What did GG fascinate about Counterpoint and Fugue? Why
did Gould not
                  record the:
                  Shostakovich op.87 Preludes and Fugues
                  Hindemith Ludus Tonalis?
                  Hindemith Variations (1936)
                  Berg Variations
                  Bach Musical Offering
                  Bach Art of the Fugue`Volume 2( why did GG not record this
one although he
                  "couldn't think of any music that moved me more deeply..."

                  Kevin Bazzana: It is difficult to say why Gould was
fascinated with
                  counterpoint and fugue; it was such a basic musical
predilection that the source is
                  undoubtedly deeply rooted in his psyche. He was a highly
rational person
                  generally, the kind of person who is uncomfortable with
his own emotions, with
                  his "animal instincts," and seeks to control them through
rationalization. This is
                  very clear in the biographical and anecdotal literature,
and obviously was very
                  influential on his musical tastes. This is not to say that
he was not a sensitive or
                  emotional person - quite the contrary - but it is
nonetheless clear that he always
                  sought control when it came to his personal life,
feelings, relationships, etc., and
                  this is no less true of his music-making. He was always
most attracted to music
                  that was "logical," "rational," "cerebral," whether by
Sweelinck, Bach,
                  Schoenberg, or whoever, and always least attracted to
music that was (by his
                  standards) primarily "sensuous" or "colourful" or
"dramatic" or "rhetorical,"
                  whether by Couperin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, or
whoever. (Of course,
                  there were contradictions: he never admired Stravinsky's
particular form of
                  "rational" music, while he somehow made a place in his
aesthetic for the highly
                  sensuous and colourful music of Scriabin and Strauss;
perhaps predictably, he
                  usually found satisfying rationalizations for these
apparent contradictions. And of
                  course, even when he played the most rigorously "rational"
music, his playing was
                  always beautiful and captivating, even if he tended not to
talk about it in those
                  terms.) Anyway, my point is that counterpoint and fugue
have always been
                  associated with musical logic, profundity, seriousness,
and so on; counterpoint is
                  more a matter of structure than colour, and given Gould's
particular psyche and
                  basic musical tastes, it is not surprising that he was
attracted to the "logic" of
                  fugues more than the sensuous beauty of nocturnes.
                  As to why he did not record various works, I will answer
briefly with what I
                  know ...:
                      Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Hindemith: don't
know.
                      Berg Variations: do you mean "Webern Variations"?? If
so, he did play those,
                  though not in the studio, but recordings are available:
there's a CD of him playing
                  the Webern in concert in Moscow (1957); there's a CBC-TV
performance from
                  1964, in Sony Classical's Glenn Gould Collection; and
there's a 1974
                  performance that is part of Bruno Monsaingeon's film
series Chemins de la
                  musique.
                      Bach Musical Offering: Gould did play this work a few
times, I believe in the
                  late 1950s and/or early 1960s, at the summer music
festival in Stratford, Ontario.
                  Undoubtedly at least one of these performances was taped,
but I don't think any
                  have ever been released.
                      Bach Art of Fugue, Vol. 2: I think Gould was
discouraged by the poor
                  reception of Volume 1 - I suspect it may be as simple as
that. He undoubtedly
                  thought that another volume of organ playing would not be
well received, while
                  bringing out "Volume 2" on the piano would be
inconsistent, so he abandoned
                  the project - at least as a studio recording. But he did
perform some of the
                  fugues - including several from the second half of the Art
of Fugue - on the
                  piano, in various media, in the latter part of his career:
one fugue on the
                  "harpsipiano", ca. 1962, on CBC-TV (now available in Sony
Classical's GG
                  Collection); three fugues in a 1967 CBC radio recital
(released on CD in the
                  1980s by Music & Arts); and four fugues divided between
two of
                  Monsaingeon's Bach films, The Question of Instrument
(1979) and An Art of
                  the Fugue (1980), both now available in the GG Collection.
Some or all of
                  these performances, along with the original organ volume,
will, I hope, be
                  available all together on one CD in February, when Sony
releases Vol. 8 of its
                  GG Edition.