Bach: Partitas No.1, No.2, No.3 (Glenn Gould)

I got this and another Glenn Gould CD at the Royal Festival Hall on 14 June 2003 (I'd gone there at lunchtime as the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were playing a free show in the foyer). They had a large selection of the Gould CDs all at £5. I think I told Lucy about them eight days later when we met for the first time at the National Film Theatre, a hundred yards away.

I like just about all kinds of piano music. I don't properly understand or appreciate the Bachiness of this; I just like the sound it makes. It's ideal for listening on a sunny Saturday morning while reading a book with a cup of espresso. In fact that's what I did last Saturday, immediately after listening to Crass. It struck me that the Bach pieces, mostly just one or two minutes long, musically quite dense and concentrated, shared these features with the brief sketches on the Crass album.

I hadn't noticed Gould's humming before. It was listening on headphones that I realised what was going on: I must have heard the sound before but just assumed it was something outside on coming through the neighbour's walls. At least it's not quite so guttural as Keith Jarrett's.

MusicBrainz entry for this album