Johann Sebastian Bach – The Complete Glenn Gould Bach Keyboard Concertos Nos. 1-5 & 7 / Beethoven Concerto No. 1 (Speakers Corner) (3xLP)

The attempts to bring Glenn Gould's elusive personality to a formula are probably just as countless as the surprising to unpredictable variations of his piano playing. Whether he can be seen as a delicate berserker, neurotic individualist or uncompromising genius, Gould polarizes, provokes and fascinates even after his death in 1982. The Canadian had already died for concert life in 1964, after he had found appearances in front of an audience unreasonable and from then on only played electronic media
Far ahead of the composers of the Viennese Classicism, whom he is said not to have taken very seriously - although his playing depicts the rhythmist Beethoven razor sharply - stands the house god Bach: with his praised severity, which gives every figure, no matter how small, a three-dimensional form in the sheet of music, Gould networks the Bach scores densely and in multi-dimensionally exhaustive depth: no lecturing keyboard advocate, but a co-creative composer materializes here the musical spirit to tone and sound. Or as music journalist Werner Theurich summed up the 80th anniversary edition of audio and visual material in 2012: "No one played more intensely than this. One can see and feel that his interpretations are so supernatural. The rest is pure music."

Recording: April 1957, May 1967 and February 1969 at Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York City, by Fred Plaut
Production: Andrew Kazdin