Glenn Gould: The Complete Columbia Album Collection

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of Glenn Gould s legendary Goldberg Variations

Glenn Gould Remastered The Complete Album Collection refurbishes Gould s complete approved studio recordings using state-of-the-art Direct Stream Digital (DSD) transfer and 24 bit/96 kHz mastering technology in a 81 CDs limited edition. The 416 page book includes complete original liner notes (many penned by Gould himself), a wealth of facsimile documents, rare photographs, full discographical information, and a newly commissioned introductory essay by Gould scholar and biographer Kevin Bazzana.

In 1955 Glenn Gould signed his exclusive contract with Columbia Masterworks, and remained with the label until his untimely death in 1982. Gould s first release, Bach s Goldberg Variations, released in January 1956, took the music world by storm, and immediately established the 22-year-old Canadian pianist as one of the most brilliant, original, charismatic and provocative classical performers of his time.

Born in Toronto on September 25, 1932, Gould studied at first with his mother, and subsequently with Alberto Guerrero at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He began performing concerts as a teenager, while his first CBC radio recital in 1950 launched his love affair with the microphone . By his late teens Gould s artistic persona was fully formed. Right at the start he favoured unusual programs, with Bach, Byrd, Gibbons, Sweelinck, Haydn and Beethoven on one side, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Hindemith on the other, broaching the Romantics selectively. In 1957 Gould became the first North American to perform in the Soviet Union since World War II. After less than a decade of international concertizing, Gould retired from the stage at 31 in 1964 to focus on recording, television work, creating innovative radio documentaries, and writing articles and essays.

Few pianists are so easily identifiable as Gould, whose rhythmic acuity, breathtakingly clean articulation, and scintillating technical aplomb still leave a formidable individual imprint, from his brashly controversial Mozart Sonata cycle and spacious Brahms Intermezzi to his fiercely committed 20th-century music interpretations and, of course, his bracing, joyous and highly influential Bach.