From the archives
Andrew Mcgregor takes a deep dive into Glenn Gould’s complete 1981 Goldberg Variations recording sessions
In April 1981 Glenn Gould arrived in Columbia’s 30th Street Studios in New York City, sat on the battered wooden chair he’d used since childhood, and played the Aria that begins Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the work that had propelled Gould to international fame in his famous 1955 recording. Twenty-six years later Gould sounds more relaxed, more introspective, more measured, but as intensely focused as ever. His obsessive approach is fully revealed in The Complete Unreleased 1981 Studio Sessions (Sony 19439977422, 10 CDS); every take, every conversation with the producers and video director, every comment on every variation. Gould reflects on the difficulties, curses as he forgets details, worrying about even a single note that doesn’t speak as he intended, sometimes blaming the piano for not allowing him to play what he hears in his head.
Producer Richard Einhorn reveals the elaborate proportional tempo plan Gould had developed since his first Goldberg recording, and the way they played back the previous variation to him in the studio so that he could precisely time the next one. It’s fascinating and surprisingly compelling to eavesdrop on the making of this legendary recording, even as we wonder how Gould might have reacted to every one of us now being invited to see how the sausage is made.
The presentation is as obsessive as the sessions: each Bach Variation in manuscript followed by the details of the takes, all speech transcribed, plus essays, studio photos, tape report sheets, each disc made to look like a reel of master tape, with the final edited recording imitating the original LP. No vinyl this time around though, unlike the 1955 Goldbergs when they were given the same treatment by Sony; this was the dawn of the digital age. Five weeks after Gould’s new Goldbergs were released on LP and cassette, he was dead. The following year the recording appeared on the new digital medium: CD. The end of the LP era, framed by Gould’s Goldbergs.
Andrew Mcgregor is the presenter of Radio 3’s Record Review, broadcast each Saturday morning from 9am until 11.45am