GG: Desert Island Discs

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

> Kate Clunies-Ross mentioned that she thought she had heard that GG was
> fond of Canada's equivalent of the BBC's Desert Island Discs (DID) and
> had complained about not being asked to be the castaway.
>
> If GG had been the castaway, what 8 pieces of music/recordings would he
> have chosen? Which would have been his favourite?

Well, Gould did write an essay about this.  "A Desert Island Discography,"
_High Fidelity_, June 1970; p437 in the _Glenn Gould Reader_.  He was 37
at the time.

He says the programme allows four books and four records, not eight.  He
doesn't say what books he'd choose.  His choices of records were:

- Gibbons hymns and anthems, Deller Consort, Archiv 3053

- Schoenberg Serenade Op 24, Bruno Maderna, Oiseau-Lyre 250

- Sibelius fifth symphony, Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic, DG 138973

- Beethoven fourth concerto, Schnabel/Stock/Chicago, on 78's

He also said his favourite album of the last few years (late 1960's) was
Karajan's recording of Wagner's "Die Walkure," but for a desert island
he'd have to reject "any work dependent upon the mechanics of a plot."

This essay doesn't say how closely any of the following were in the
running: Petula Clark records, Streisand, Schwarzkopf, "Switched-On Bach."

Bill Evans' "Symbiosis" (1974, written by Claus Ogerman, one of
Streisand's producers) obviously was not yet a candidate since it didn't
yet exist.

Also, there was the Brahms piano quintet with Guarneri/Rubinstein that
Gould was "drunk on" in 1971, according to his interview with Rubinstein.


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot