By the time this single-disc compilation was issued in 2007, most listeners had long ago made up their minds about the late, great Glenn Gould. Some considered the Canadian pianist one of the musical marvels of the postwar era, a fleet-fingered wizard with a overwhelmingly compelling point of view. Others consider him a tremendously gifted eccentric with an incomprehensibly weird point of view. Neither camp will be converted to the other's position by this coupling of Gould's 1959 recordings of the 'Italian' Concerto and the Partitas in B flat major and C minor with his 1981 recording of the 'Italian' Concerto and his 1979 recordings of the Concerto in D minor after Marcello and the Chromatic Fantasy in D minor. Gould's playing evolved in inexplicable ways over the intervening two decades, but his technique remained beyond reproach while his interpretations remained beyond criticism for some and beyond comprehension for others. For some, his tone in the B flat Partita's Sarabande may have the austere poetry of higher mathematics; for others, it may have only the dryer delights of brain surgery. For some, his quicker 1959 Andante from the 'Italian' Concerto will have the biting pleasure of white wine; for others, his slower 1981 Andante will have the sharp pain of nails on a blackboard. Recorded at three different times by three different producers -- Howard H. Scott in 1959, Andrew Kazin in 1979,Gould himself in 1981 -- the sound of these performances is quite different -- clean and hard in 1959, crisp and close in 1979, tight and bright in 1981 -- but Sony's remastering is uniformly clear and open.

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