Glenn Gould – Grieg: Piano Sonata, Op. 7 / Bizet: Nocturne & Variations Chromatiques (1973/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – Grieg: Piano Sonata, Op. 7 / Bizet: Nocturne & Variations Chromatiques (1973/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:00 minutes | 419 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Gould as an “incorrigible romantic.” Instead of Schumann, Chopin, or Liszt he selected two unimaginably obscure rarities, referring to Grieg as a personal ancestor (“the composer was a cousin of my maternal great-grandfather”) and to Bizet’s Variations chromatiques as “one of the very few masterpieces for solo piano to emerge from the third quarter of the nineteenth century.”

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Glenn Gould – J.S. Bach: The Six Partitas (2012) SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Glenn Gould – J.S. Bach: The Six Partitas (2012)
PS3 Rip | 2 SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 66:03 (Disc 1), 71:07 (Disc 2) | 3.93 GB Total
2 Discs FLAC 2.0 Stereo (PS3 ISO extract / Weiss Saracon conversion) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 1.77 GB Total
Japan Import | Year: 1959, 2012

This recording featuring Bach’s complete Partitas for keyboard are probably one of Glenn Gould’s most accessible and easy to digest interpretations, so it’s no surprise that Sony has chosen it for re-mastering on SA-CD.

Canadian pianist Glenn Gould first became famous for his daring interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on his debut album with Columbia. Featuring unusual tempis for some of the variations, crystal clear playing, and a dazzling technical virtuosity (especially in the way he played some variations lightning fast), the overall performance made many people see the work with completely new eyes. Even jaded connoisseurs found fresh insights in a seemingly rigid and formal piece of music and a performance that seemed to go against convention for piano interpretations of Bach keyboard works.

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Glenn Gould – Glenn Gould Plays His Own Transcriptions of Wagner Orchestral Showpieces (1973/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – Glenn Gould Plays His Own Transcriptions of Wagner Orchestral Showpieces (1973/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:33 minutes | 406 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

“You know, I’ve always sort of sat down at night and played Wagner for myself, because I’m a total Wagnerite—hopelessly addicted to the later things especially—and I thought it would be fun to make my own transcriptions.” To manage the ending of the Meistersinger Overture without leaving out any of the themes, Gould had to play four-hands with himself—an instance of what he called “creative lying.”

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Glenn Gould – The Sound of Glenn Gould (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – The Sound of Glenn Gould (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:45 minutes | 706 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

In 1956 Glenn Gould’s first Columbia Masterworks release, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, took the music world by storm and immediately established the 23-year-old Canadian pianist as one of the most brilliant, original, charismatic and provocative classical performers of his time. Sixty years later, Gould’s prolific recorded output remains a stimulating presence, thanks to Sony Classical’s newly remastered collection of his complete authorized recordings in an 81-CD limited edition. The Sound of Glenn Gould presents highlights from this definitive presentation of the legendary pianist’s discography.

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Glenn Gould – Canadian Music in the 20th Century (1967/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – Canadian Music in the 20th Century (1967/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:07 minutes | 346 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

“Canada’s a place to live comfortably, amicably, and with reasonable anonymity.” Thus Gould’s response to a Toronto Telegram survey on “Canada Day.” The recording of these three works appeared during Canada’s centennial celebrations on 1 July 1967. A fourth piece, Ombres by Barbara Pentland, was recorded but not released until 1992.

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Glenn Gould – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1955 Recording, Rechannelled for Stereo) – Gould Remastered (1968/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1955 Recording, Rechannelled for Stereo) – Gould Remastered (1968/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:34 minutes | 356 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

The historic record debut re-channeled for stereo. “Gould’s Goldberg Variations are Bach as the old master himself must have played – with delight in speeding like the wind, joy in squeezing beauty out of every phrase, and all the freshness of the spring water which hypochondriac Gould used to wet his pipes.” – Time

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Glenn Gould – 50 Masterworks (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – 50 Masterworks (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 03:15:28 minutes | 1,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

The most renowned Canadian classical performer of the 20th century, pianist Glenn Gould remains one of the most fascinating and celebrated figures in all of music, the archetypal riddle wrapped inside an enigma wrapped inside a conundrum. A former child prodigy, his piano artistry was unparalleled, yet he often received less recognition as a virtuoso than as a troubled eccentric; a disconnected recluse notorious for such odd habits as wearing a wool topcoat in the dog days of summer, Gould was a sight to behold even in live performances – seated on a low chair and slumped over the keyboard, humming (sometimes singing) audibly to himself as he played, all the while conducting with his free hand. Gould’s impossible technique and singular behavior were so hotly debated by scholars that often it seemed that his actual skills were negligible; perhaps it’s not surprising that at the age of just 31, he left public performance behind forever, turning instead to broadcasting and writing, as well as an almost obsessive exploration of modern recording technology.

Gould was born in Toronto, Ontario, on September 25, 1932, the product of a musical family that included his father, an amateur violinist, and his mother, a pianist and organist; Edvard Grieg was a distant relation as well. Even at the age of three, Gould evidenced prodigious skills – in addition to his absolute pitch, he was already able to read staff notation, and just two years later he authored his first compositions. At the age of ten, he began lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and in 1944 took home the piano trophy from the annual Kiwanis Music Festival, the only such contest he ever entered in response to his strong opposition to the idea of competitive performance. In 1945, Gould passed his associateship examination as a solo performer at the Royal Conservatory; that same year he offered his first public performance on the organ, a concert reviewed under the headline “Boy, Age 12, Shows Genius as Organist.”

At the age of 14, Gould made his debut as soloist at a Royal Conservatory orchestral performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. His first public recital was in 1947, and featured works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt; his debut network radio recital followed over CBC airwaves in 1950, and marked the beginning of his long relationship with broadcasting and recording. In early 1955, Gould made his New York debut, and within hours signed with Columbia’s Masterworks imprint. His first recording, a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, became an instant best-seller, and he went on to make over 60 more recordings for the label in the years to follow. In 1957, Gould toured Europe, and at the peak of Cold War tensions he became the first North American ever to perform in the Soviet Union. His concert career continued to great success during the early ’60s, but in Los Angeles on April 10, 1964 – with no advance warning, and without fanfare – he delivered his final public performance.

Gould’s decision to retire from live performances was in part a result of his desire to focus more of his energies on writing, broadcasting, composing, and conducting; his first major new project was a “sound documentary” called The Idea of North, a philosophical musing on the meaning of northern existence. Keeping in contact with the outside world primarily over the telephone, Gould was often out of the spotlight for long periods of time, but in 1981 he broke with his long tradition of not re-recording material to return to the work with which he remained most closely identified, the Goldberg Variations; his decision was motivated in large part by the vast improvements in technology during the quarter century that separated the two recordings. Months later, he formed a Toronto chamber orchestra, serving as their conductor on a recording of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll; it was his last major work – Gould died on October 4, 1982, after suffering a stroke. He was just 50 years old. ~ Jason Ankeny

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Glenn Gould – Bach: Partitas Nos. 1 – 6, BWV 825 – 830 by Glenn Gould (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Glenn Gould – Bach: Partitas Nos. 1 – 6, BWV 825 – 830 by Glenn Gould (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:36:32 minutes | 1,75 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic piano literature by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others, in favour of Bach and Beethoven mainly, along with some late-Romantic and modernist composers. Although his recordings were dominated by Bach and Beethoven, Gould’s repertoire was diverse, including works by Mozart, Haydn, Scriabin, and Brahms; pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons; and 20th-century composers including Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. Gould was known for his eccentricities, from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard to aspects of his lifestyle and behaviour. He stopped giving concerts at age 31 to concentrate on studio recording and other projects.

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Glenn Gould – Gould & Bach: Perfect Match (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould – Gould & Bach: Perfect Match (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:54 minutes | 652 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Glenn Herbert Gould September 25, 1932 – October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gould’s playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach’s music.

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Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2,3 By Glenn Gould (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2,3 By Glenn Gould (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:19 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alexandre Bak – Classical Music Reference Recording

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Glenn Gould – Berg, Schoenberg & Krenek : Works for Piano (Remastered) (1959/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould - Berg, Schoenberg & Krenek : Works for Piano (Remastered) (1959/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Glenn Gould – Berg, Schoenberg & Krenek : Works for Piano (Remastered) (1959/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:23 minutes | 383 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

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Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Golschmann – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (1958/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Golschmann - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (1958/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Golschmann – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (1958/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:42 minutes | 443 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Columbia Records

Instead of Leonard Bernstein, the Columbia Symphony Orchestra was fronted this time by Vladimir Golschmann. Born in Paris to Russian émigrés in 1893 and head of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1931, Golschmann was one of the few conductors with whom Gould apparently never had problems, and vice versa. In the Beethoven concerto Gould played his own cadenza – with a noticeable nod to Max Reger…
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Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 (1957/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 (1957/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Glenn Gould, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19; Bach: Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 (1957/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 52:08 minutes | 370 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Columbia Records

Gould’s first recording with orchestra, and his first studio collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, fourteen years his senior. “During the first portion of the concerto, Mr. Gould slid out from behind the piano and loped casually about the hall. He shook his head, waved his arms, beat time, and acted generally in a manner that any conductor less accustomed to the ways of genius might have found trying in the extreme. Bernstein took no notice.”
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Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt) (1968/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould - Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt) (1968/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt) (1968/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 39:17 minutes | 368 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Joke, satire, irony, deeper significance: the back cover of Gould’s gripping recording contained four imaginary reviews by an English critic (Sir Humphrey Price-Davies), a Munich musicologist (Dr. Karlheinz Heinkel), an American psychiatrist (Prof. S. F. Lemming), and the American corres pondent to the Journal of the All-Union Musical Workers of Budapest. All were written by Gould himself …
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Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32 (1956/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Glenn Gould - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32 (1956/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Glenn Gould – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 30-32 (1956/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:12 minutes | 303 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Sensation yields to scandal: Gould’s feisty and headstrong treatment of the final triptych in Beethoven’s pianistic “New Testament” outraged the critics no less than his sleeve notes, in which he claimed of op. 111 that “the piece is weak in spots; it needs greater speed. Especially the first movement is such a bad piece that I wanted to get on to the finale.”
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