Canadian Music in the 20th Century - Gould Remastered

Album review

Glenn Gould is best known for his recordings of the repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, but he also left an extensive discography of works by twentieth century composers, including Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Korngold, Hindemith, Shostakovich, and Poulenc. On this CD, recorded in 1967, he plays works by three of his compatriots and near contemporaries, Canadians Oskar Morawetz (who was Czech-born), Istvan Anhalt (who immigrated from Hungary), and Jacques Hétu. The pieces are each attractive and engaging, and while none of them is going to set the world on fire with its originality or depth, the intensity of Gould's playing invests them with an interest, which in the case of the Morawetz and Anhalt surpasses strength of their actual content. Hétu's Variations are the quirkiest, most playful, and least predictable of the three, and also the most immediately appealing; it's easy to imagine its finding its way onto concert programs of performers looking for attractive out-of-the-way repertoire. Morawetz's Fantasy in D minor is well made in the Hindemithian sense, but without a particularly strong sense of purpose. Anhalt's Fantasia is more tonally unmoored, but similarly lacks a definitive purposefulness; Gould's description of it as "somewhat diffident" is apt. Throughout, Gould's humming is faintly audible, an endearing reminder of his attachment to the music, as well as a useful guide in bringing the pieces' main musical ideas into the foreground. One of the joys of this reissue is the essay (albeit in microscopic print) that features Gould's witty, catty, and fearsomely profound insights on the state of Canadian music, and by extension the international music scene, of the mid-'60s. The recording has some ancillary noises, like the creaking of the piano bench and a very slight tape hiss.

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