[f_minor] Gould and Rachmaninoff

Brad Lehman bpl at umich.edu
Thu Jul 15 15:49:53 EDT 2010


On 7/15/2010 1:13 PM, Houpt, Fred wrote:
> Has anyone listened to this one?
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-Mendelssohn-Scriabin-Prokofiev/dp/B000
> 0028NQ/ref=pd_sim_m_2
>
> He recorded Mendelssohn? Wha???? News to me

I have the earlier releases of that Mendelssohn and Chopin, when they 
were Music & Arts CDs (that had to get withdrawn when the estate and 
Sony got uppity).  The Mendelssohn struck me as OK but not really 
special or memorable.

The Chopin, on the other hand, was more bizarre than anyone could 
rightly expect, even for Gould.  Tempo and dynamics flattened out. 
First movement "Allegro maestoso" slow, and not really resembling 
Allegro.  Left-hand figurations as noisy as he did in some of the 
Mozart.  I have it on right now, for weird old times' sake.

Sub-par sound for 1970, too...and some tape unsteadiness.  Did the Sony 
issue fix any of that?


Brad Lehman


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