How Mozart Became a Bad Composer, Glenn Gould's controversial 1968 program for American Public Television, will be screened to the public for the first time. The film is part of a special evening called Rediscovering Glenn Gould, to be held at The Paley Center for Media at 6:00 PM on April 28, 2008, the fortieth anniversary of its original airing.
The film will be introduced by pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who recently recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations to great acclaim. It will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the pianist, writer, broadcaster adn Juilliard professor David Dubal and filmmaker Lucille Carra, who is working on a new Gould documentary and who discovered the long-lost Mozart program last year.
For more information about How Mozart Became a Bad Composer, read the news item "Lost Gould film rediscovered at the Glenn Gould Foundation's official site: www.glenngould.ca.
To purchase tickets to Rediscovering Glenn Gould, please visit: www.mtr.org
The Paley Center for Media
24 West 52nd Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues)
New York, NY
For more information, schedule and to purchase tickets, please visit: http://cinemathequeontario.ca
ICON-Collectibles, a unique website powered by SONY BMG which offers music fans from all over the world an opportunity to bid on extraordinary music memorabilia including museum quality fine art photographs of your favorite artists, is happy to make available six limited edition professionally printed photographs from the historic SONY BMG photo archives. Each print is individually created using premium fiber-based paper and includes a Certificate of Authenticity.
“The Glenn Gould Trilogy “, a unique radio play 'composed' by Michael Stegemann,
provides on 3 CD's a unique insight into the life, music and thoughts of Glenn Gould, the brilliant pianist who would have turned 75 on 25th September 2007.
Berlin/London, July 2007: The Canadian musician Glenn Gould (25th September 1932 – 4th October 1982 in Toronto, Canada) was without any doubt one of the leading pianists of all time. Even today, the unconventional interpretations and eccentric personality of the "James Dean of the piano" continue to exude an unbroken fascination.
In good time for Glenn's 75th birthday on 25th September and the 25th anniversary of his death on 4th October, Sony Classical will be releasing a special 3-CD box on 4th September 2007 to mark this double jubilee: "The Glenn Gould Trilogy – A Life" is a fascinating journey through the life, the music and the thoughts of Glenn Gould. Radio play, biography, talking book, music and original spoken commentaries are blended on the three CD's to create an enthralling portrait, as unusual and gripping as the charismatic and eccentric artist himself.
"The Glenn Gould Trilogy" was designed by Gould biographer Michael Stegemann, with Gould's own Solitude Trilogy serving as the source of inspiration. For Gould was not only a brilliant musician, he was also a visionary radio and media pioneer: his idea of 'contrapunctal radio' and the Solitude Trilogy that he created, based on this idea, for CBC between 1967 and 1977 served as the basis for Stegemann's work. Gould's Solitude Trilogy consists of three revolutionary radio plays, which Gould himself called 'docudramas', about life in northern Canada (The Idea of North, The Latecomers and The Quiet in the Land). Not dissimilar to a Baroque fugue, each of the three parts of the Solitude Trilogy is composed as a collage of overlapping texts (spoken by different narrators), sounds and noises that complement each other in terms of content. CD 1: The Idea of Music takes us up to Gould's first recording of Bachs Goldbergvariations for the CBC in 1954. CD 2: The Drop-Out describes his legendary record début with Bach's Goldberg Variations (1955) and follows the years when he gave regular recitals until the 'concert drop-out' in 1964, when he retired from the concert platform completely, while CD 3: The Quiet in the Studio is devoted to the years up to his death, years when Gould only communicated with his public through the media of records, radio and television.
The Glenn Gould Trilogy – A Life was produced jointly by West German Radio (WDR/Cologne), Studio Akustische Kunst (editor: Markus Heuger) and SonyClassical/SonyBMG in studio sessions that stretched over several months. A English language version was made, and a separate German one for the German-speaking market. For the narrators of the English version, we were fortunate enough to engage the services of Tom Zahner and Leslie Malton among others.
The Glenn Gould Trilogy is one of the few radio plays designed not only to yield stereo, but also surround sound, thus enabling the special character of this collage-like composition to be enjoyed to even more realistic effect.
The CD's will therefore be released in the Hybrid Super Audio CD format, which, in combination with a Super Audio compatible CD player and equipment able to reproduce surround sound, enables the listener to enjoy a fascinating, multidimensional experience. But the CD's can also be played in stereo on any normal CD player.
The Glenn Gould Trilogy takes us on a trip into the life and mind of a charismatic and shrewd eccentric who anticipated the potential, and also the limitations and dangers, of total media networking as scarcely any other musician of his time did. Glenn Gould was always in search of a perfect interpretation. A unique genius, enduringly controversial and ever eager to argue his point, he remains unsurpassed to this day.
Available for purchase on Amazon and Sony Music Store
Available now!
Amazon Canada - click here
Amazon United States - click here
Sony Classical, the home of Gould’s recording legacy from 1955 to the present, continues its pivotal role in presenting and promoting Glenn Gould around the world. This fall, the Sony Classical will be releasing The Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection, an 80-disc boxed set commemorating Gould’s recording legacy. It includes all the artist's Columbia LP recordings on 78 CDs, from Glenn Gould's legendary 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations to piano works by Richard Strauss released posthumously on 4 April 1984. The bonus CDs include the last interview that Glenn Gould gave to Tim Page in 1981 and an audio essay on Johann Sebastian Bach and the fugue that Gould recorded in 1972 for a bonus LP. The set includes a new, detailed essay by the German Gould specialist Michael Stegemann. In addition, Dr. Michael Stegemann has created a new 3 CD boxed set entitled, The Glenn Gould Trilogy – A Life which includes a radio play, biography, talking book, music and original spoken commentaries. Bruno Monsaingeon’s DVD, The Goldberg Variations will be re-released in the fall with additional DVD titles planned for 2008.
Extraordinary musician takes centre stage in new major exhibition
The most comprehensive exhibition ever presented on Glenn Gould will open at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau-Ottawa (Canada) on September 28, 2007. Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius traces his development from Toronto child prodigy to international concert star to recording- and media-artist pioneer. Along the way, it will explore the personal ideas and music that helped make him a cultural icon.
Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius is a multimedia exhibition in which Gould will serve as the principal host, speaking to us through taped interviews, his writings and media productions, and of course his music. The exhibition also features a remarkably rich and varied collection of artifacts. Among the many highlights are Gould’s beloved Steinway piano, the folding chair specially modified to fit his unusual playing position, and a custom-tailored tuxedo and tails he wore on stage. The exhibition also brings together, for the first time, a large and diverse collection of Gould’s letters, manuscripts, publicity posters, and personal items.
Glenn Gould: The Sounds of Genius
September 28, 2007 to August 10, 2008
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa (Canada)
www.civilization.ca/genius
NEW YORK - SONY BMG Masterworks and Zenph Studios announce the release of a breakthrough in the history of recorded music. Zenph's re-performance of pianist Glenn Gould's renowned 1955 rendition of the Bach Goldberg Variations lets listeners hear this celebrated work like never before and provides for a sonic rediscovery of an iconic recording.
The Goldberg Variations by Gould is one of the jewels of the Masterworks catalogue, continuously in print for over half a century. Zenph's new technique lets the performance be heard for the first time in state-of-the-art sound on a new SONY BMG Masterworks hybrid multichannel SACD/CD disc, which includes versions tailored for surround sound and headphone listening.
Zenph's innovative re-performance process takes audio recordings and turns them into nuanced live performances that precisely replicate the original recording but offer vastly improved sound quality. Listeners are now able to go back to the moment of creation and experience Gould's playing as if they were in the room when the original recording was made.
Re-performances replicate the original musician's touch, timing and sound - including glitches in the original performance. "We've preserved every single note, including the mistakes," said John Q. Walker, president of Zenph Studios. "The improvements are all related to the sound quality. This is something that needs to be heard to be fully appreciated."
Zenph captures the musical nuances of the original piano recording's every note, with details about the pedal actions, volume and articulations - all with millisecond timings. The digital data is transcribed into high-resolution MIDI files and played back on a state-of-the-art Yamaha Disklavier Pro™ concert grand piano. The process allows for the production of new recordings that transcend the limitations of the original recording process.
SONY BMG assembled its top producers and engineers for the Gould project, including Steven Epstein, five-time Grammy® Award winner for "Producer of the Year," and Richard King, senior recording engineer for Sony Music Studios in New York and a three-time Grammy® winner.
Hailed worldwide, Zenph's work was named one of the Best Ideas of 2006 by The New York Times Magazine. "The re-creations are uncanny," wrote Paul D. Lehrman in Insider Audio magazine. "The timings and variations in the keystrokes are so subtle, it's easy to imagine the pianist is in the room, his fingers pushing the keys down."
Last year, at a live re-performance of the Goldberg Variations held at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, members of the Glenn Gould Foundation stood and applauded after the last note faded.
"As many times as I've heard the '55 Goldbergs, it was like hearing them for the first time," said Malcolm Lester, past managing director, Glenn Gould Foundation. "We were tremendously impressed."
The Goldberg Variations release is the first of a series of planned re-performance titles by classical and jazz piano masters culled from SONY BMG Masterworks' archives, including Sergei Rachmaninoff and Art Tatum.
###
About SONY/BMG Masterworks
Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal and deutsche harmonia mundi are labels of SONY BMG MASTERWORKS. For e-mail updates and information regarding Sony Classical, RCA Red Seal and deutsche harmonia mundi artists, promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit www.sonybmgmasterworks.com.
About Zenph Studios
Zenph® Studios, Inc. is an entertainment technology company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company's focus is building software for understanding - and re-creating - precisely how musicians perform. Sony BMG is issuing a series of Zenph's re-performances™ beginning in 2007, with modern recordings in vastly improved sound from perspectives tailored for surround-sound and headphone listening. Zenph's processes creates live performances identical to past recordings by legendary artists. Whether on stage or via new recordings, the results offer astonishing fidelity. For more information about Zenph Studios, visit www.zenph.com.
About the Glenn Gould Foundation
Throughout 2007, the worldwide artistic community will celebrate Glenn Gould, commemorating his artistic vision and contributions to the arts. On September 27, the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Gatineau Canada will open an interactive Glenn Gould exhibit, where Gould will speak for himself through the use of sound documents, performance and video extracts, and, radio programs. From September 28 - September 30 2007, The Glenn Gould Foundation will host a conference at The Canadian Museum of Civilization, entitled Glenn Gould and The Future of Music. Throughout the year, there will be musical performances, lectures and film screenings around the world to commemorate Glenn Gould's legendary artistic contribution. For a full listing of events, please visit www.glenngould.ca