|
|
News Release98-06 Additions to National Library of Canada's Glenn Gould ArchiveOttawa, September 25, 1998 -- The Moon-mad Crow writes to the Chère Shorebird in one of the unique items that the National Library of Canada has just added to its Glenn Gould Archive. On June 18, 1998, the Library purchased two handwritten letters by Glenn Gould and two audiocassettes of Gould interviews at auction in the U.S. The first letter, to journalist Joseph Roddy, was dated June 7, 1957. Written on three pages of Hotel Ambassador (Vienna) stationery during Gould's triumphant Russian-European tour, it provided information on Gould's early musical education, later used in a biographical profile, published in the May 14, 1969 edition of the New Yorker. The second letter, dated March 12 (1965), sent to "Chère Shorebird" (Deborah Ishlon, Gould's New York press agent) and signed "Moon-mad Crow," was written on "Aboard United Air Lines" stationery. It contains a tongue-in-cheek review of a concert of compositions by the French composer-conductor, Pierre Boulez, which Gould had attended in Los Angeles. (He did not think much of Boulez' music.) The first audio cassette contains a two-hour interview which Gould conducted with the celebrated pianist Artur Rubinstein in December 1970. A heavily edited version of the interview was published in Look magazine (March 9, 1971). The second cassette is of a 1981 interview of Gould by Joseph Roddy concerning Gould's second commercial recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The fruit of this interview was a Roddy article on the recording in People magazine (November 30, 1981). "We are delighted to have acquired these items, which give further insight into this musical genius and unusual personality," says National Librarian Marianne Scott. "It is particularly important that the National Library of Canada, as the primary centre for research on Glenn Gould, should expand its archive on this great Canadian artist." The National Library of Canada's Glenn Gould Archive may be consulted at the Library or via the World Wide Web (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/glenngould/index-e.html) -30- For further information, contact: Dr. S. Timothy Maloney |