Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Richard [1] Strauss, Johannes Brahms :: Glenn Gould At The Movies

Sound-track redux

F. Behrens | Keene, NH USA | 09/19/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sony's recent release of (SK 66531) is one of these annoying recyclings of old material (not bad in itself) that consists of bits and pieces of longer works (which makes them for the most part musically meaningless out of context), all packaged under some supposedly unifying concept (such as "A Night in Vienna" or "Baroque for Lovers" or some such nonsense). Here we have some marvelously played selections from Bach, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Sibelius, Scriabin, and lot more Bach that Mr. Gould happened to have played in past films. For example, "Slaughterhouse Five" used some Gould/Bach on its soundtrack and an LP was duly issued with the pianist's name as large as the movie title. Again, a largo by Strauss was used in "The Wars" as were two Intermezzos by Brahms. So into this collection they go. Of course when Gould appeared on screen in "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould" in 1993, the entire musical portion was put onto CDs; here we have 5 selections. So any collector of Gould's output will already have all this material and in the context for which it was intended by the composers. The target audience for this Sony offering must be collectors of sound track music or those wishing an introduction to this artist. On that last level, this collection stands up very well. So to each his own."