Music Milestones, 1981: Glenn Gould – Goldberg Variations

A virtuoso pianist with eccentric personality, Glenn Gould was one of the great performers of classical music of the 20th century and also a noteworthy contributor to the scholarly debate on music theory and philosophy. Gould garnered international acclaim in 1955 with his seminal recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a piece that he would curiously revisit in 1981 shortly before his death. The story goes that Bach’s Goldberg Variations were composed in the 1740s to be performed by the young harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, arguably at the behest of the sleepless Count Kaiserling who longed for music to soothe him during his long nights. Bach decided to compose 30 variations on an aria in a ternary pattern, where every third variation of the aria is called a canon, followed by a genre piece and an arabesque. The result is outstanding and Gould’s performances of 1955 and 1981, while both brilliant in their own right, are rather different in nature. The 1981 version of Goldberg Variations somewhat lacks the vivacity of its 1955 counterpart, and displays a more toned down and pondered interpretation of Bach’s masterpiece. Have a listen to a segment of Goldberg Variations, which includes my favorite variation 14 and should constitute a fine introduction to Gould’s virtuosity:

Music Milestones, 1980: The Durutti Column – The Return of the Durutti Column

Misnamed after Buenaventura Durruti’s anarchist group that fought in the Spanish civil war, the Durutti Column is a music project devised by Factory founder Tony Wilson and revolving around guitar prodigy Vini Reilly. Although Reilly started playing music on the piano at an early age, he soon became interested in the harmonic possibilities of electric guitar. Reilly therefore made use of his solid background in classical music to produce atmospheric soundscapes, which were based on unconventional melodies novel to popular music. The Return of the Durutti Column was Reilly’s first effort, where Martin Hannett’s sparse production rendered the record instrumentals hazy and ethereal. “Sketch for Summer” starts off with the sound of chirping birds reminiscent of a warm summer afternoon, while Reilly’s guitar adds to the joyous feel of the piece. “Katherine” is the longest track in the record and contains a fine blues segment, whereas “Conduct” evolves from a calm and peaceful start toward a more turbulent ending. “Jazz” is self-explanatory, embracing elements of jazz music and preceding by a decade the emergence of post-rock. “Sketch for Winter” is somewhat darker than its summer counterpart, and boasts Reilly’s guitar mournfully proceeding unaccompanied. I leave you with “Collette”, one of my favorites from The Return of the Durutti Column: