Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0886971309423
Format: Box set
Label: SONY CLASSICS
Manufacturer: SONY CLASSICS
MPN: 713094
Number Of Discs: 80
Publisher: SONY CLASSICS
Release Date: 2007-09-25
Studio: SONY CLASSICS

The Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection" is presented to mark the brilliant pianist's 75th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his death. It is a fascinating, limited edition: all the artist's LP recordings in the "look and feel" of the original vinyl discs on 80 CDs.

The Canadian Glenn Gould (born in Toronto 25 September 1932 - died there 4 October 1982) was without doubt one of the most important pianists of all time. Even today, the idiosyncratic interpretations and the eccentric personality of the "James Dean of the piano" exert a continuing fascination.

In good time to commemorate the artist's birth 75 years ago on 25 September and his death 25 years ago on 4 October 2007, the Sony Classical label is launching a special project in honour of the double anniversary: "The Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection" transfers all the artist's recordings for LP on to 78 CDs, from Glenn Gould's legendary 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations to piano works by Richard Strauss released posthumously on 4 April 1984, and of course, not one of the brilliant artist's legendary Bach recordings is missed out.

Each of the 60 single and 9 double CDs consists of the exact recordings as first issued on vinyl and looks like a miniaturised form of the original disc: the CDs are in cardboard slipcases in the original design, and the CD itself is designed to look like a LP.

Supplemented by two bonus CDs, the limited "Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection" comprises 80 CDs mounted in a high-quality display case with a booklet of more than 240 pages. This booklet contains a new, detailed essay by the German Gould specialist Michael Stegemann on Glenn Gould and the LP recording era along with texts and repertoire details to all recordings in the edition, plus a listing and depiction of the records with reissue dates for repertoire that has appeared before.

The bonus CDs include the last great interview that Glenn Gould gave the American journalist Tim Page in 1981 and an essay on Johann Sebastian Bach and the fugue that Gould recorded in 1972 for a bonus LP. They also feature a number of late recordings that never appeared on vinyl: fragments of the "Italian Album" and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll in its orchestral version -- Gould's recording debut as conductor and his last recording of all, made on 8 September 1982 with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Another rarity is Gould's own film music to George Roy Hill's Slaughterhouse Five from 1972.

Customer Rating:
Summary: YOU EITHER GET HIM, OR YOU DON't. ME? I......
Comment: .....get him. Big time.

Yet I don't know how to describe it. Maybe that's the provence of the music in this set.

Yes, the nut was a genius - and it's difficult to under estimate how ill a man Gould was. I'll leave that for the biographers. OCD to the max.

Nonetheless - listen. God - just listen. Not only to the Bach but Disc #11, the Brahms Intermezzi, or Disc #53 the HIndemith Brass Sonatas. Have your musical world enriched and enlarged. Feast deep.

This is a pool to swim in. Whether to dip your toes in, or to swim multiple laps. Gould's music has changed the way I listen to music for over four decades. I continue to hear things I've never heard before. (This is particularly true in these latest re-masterings)

I waited a year to buy this set. My advice: don't wait. If you love Gould, you'll love this set. If like me, you already own several of the 20-bit "white box" remasterings - buy this set. Having the visual images of the album covers makes each one more distinct.

Then listen to the first recording of the Goldbergs, and the valedictory recording of the Goldbergs and ponder the meaning, and scope, of Life.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: excellent Bach and Viennese School but...
Comment: If you are looking for good Beethoven or mozart interpretations, search in somewhere else, otherwise, you will be very disapointed. Mr. Gould did not like these composers and his ungangly playing in their works evidence that. Well, nobody is perfect, anyway...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful box.
Comment: If you don't have any CDs with classical music yet, but would really have some, then this box is really a wonderful way to start with. Glenn Gould was a genius in his own way with a vanguard attitude to the interpretation of the "holy" works. If you know the pieces well, but never heard the Gould's versions, may be it's time to breathe in some fresh fragrance from the known source.
Pro: you have the complete studio recordings of Glenn Gould with original LP packaging artwork.
Contra: the CDs are packaged direct into carton without any inlays neither of soft paper nor of plastic. And it's a pity, because if you're going to listen to them often, then you can scratch the CDs. And if you're a CD/record collector then you don't have lots of spare place, that's why you won't take 70 empty CD-boxes in order to handle them properly...

Nevertheless, you will have much joy with it!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Gould's wonderful legacy
Comment: The box, the booklet and everything related to the presentation of this collection is fine. The recordings are complete, with good information provided. The CD sleeves copy those from the original LP recordings. Sadly, as they are much smaller, you can hardly read the back cover original comments. But this is only a minor point. Definitely, this is a must for any piano aficionados.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Journey
Comment: Having grown up and studied music for a while in Toronto, one can get overwhelmed with people who claim to have known Gould's mother, father, piano technician, teacher or the man himself. Even more than a quarter of a century after his death, people still try to humanize Gould by finding professionals who feel that they are qualified to give him clinical diagnoses. Though it is understandable that one may feel the necessity to link themselves with this Titan, it becomes evident that no one could have known or understood the mind of Gould.

This survey of Gould's recordings is one of the greatest musical journeys that is out there today. Though he was renowned for his interpretations of J.S. Bach and Schoenberg, it becomes evident that he had a vast, vast repertoire that spanned from the early music of Gibbons to his contemporaries. He also discovered and took interest in music that is rarely heard. Gould's Stauss disc and his recordings Grieg and Bizet are also of interest. In this journey, I was amazed at his Beethoven interpretations. I have never heard such humour in his music. His Bach remains unchallenged to this day. There simply isn't a bolder recording of the Toccata in c minor and the "a minor Fugue," from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

The discs where he discusses his insights on various matters relating to music (pianos, touring, and critics) gives us another fascinating glimpse of this artist.

This box set is definitely one of those things I would take to a desert island.

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