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Glenn Gould ‎– The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach

Label: Columbia Masterworks ‎– ML 5060

Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono 

Country: US

Released: 1955

Genre: Classical, Baroque

Tracklist:

A. Variations Nos. 1 Through 16

B. Variations Nos. 17 Through 30

Includes a second 'insert' cover with the continuation of the liner notes on one side and advertisements for Columbia on the other. Grey '6-eyes' labels.

Vinyl VG+ with some light surface wear under glare of light, faint hairline on side 1. Sleeve VG+ with light surface wear, intact edges, no splitting, no ring wear. ML 5060 '6-eye' label release, inner sleeve with 'liner notes' present.

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Glenn Gould (1932 – 1982) was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most-celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gould's playing was distinguished by a remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music. Gould rejected most of the standard Romantic piano literature by Chopin, Liszt, and others, in favor of Baroque, Renaissance, late-Romantic, and modernist composers. Although his recordings were dominated by Bach and Beethoven, Gould's repertoire was diverse, including works by Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd, and such 20th-century composers as Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. Gould was known for his eccentricities, from his unorthodox musical interpretations and mannerisms at the keyboard, to aspects of his lifestyle and behavior. He stopped giving concerts at the age of 31 to concentrate on studio recording and other projects. Gould was also a writer, broadcaster, and conductor. He was a prolific contributor to musical journals, in which he discussed music theory and outlined his musical philosophy.

Bach: The Goldberg Variations is the 1955 debut album of Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. An interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), the work launched Gould's career as a renowned international pianist, and became one of the most well-known piano recordings. Sales were "astonishing" for a classical album: it was reported to have sold 40,000 copies by 1960, and had sold more than 100,000 by the time of Gould's death in 1982. In 1981, a year before his death, Gould made a new recording of the Goldberg Variations, sales of which exceeded two million by 2000. The piece was one of only a few he recorded twice in the studio. The 1981 release was one of CBS Masterworks' first digital recordings. The 1955 interpretation is highly energetic and often frenetic; the later is slower and more deliberate—Gould wanted to treat the aria and its 30 variations as a cohesive whole.

At the time of the first album's release, Bach's Goldberg Variations—a set of 30 contrapuntal variations beginning and ending with an aria—were outside the standard piano repertoire, having been recorded on the instrument only a few times before, either on small labels or unreleased. The work was considered esoteric and technically demanding, requiring awkward hand crossing at times when played on a piano (these passages would be played on two manuals on a harpsichord). Gould's album both established the Goldberg Variations within the contemporary classical repertoire and made him an internationally famous pianist nearly "overnight". First played in concert by Gould in 1954, the composition was a staple of Gould's performances in the years following the recording.