Description

The cover of Glenn Gould's first album is a grid of thirty small photographs of the pianist at work, arranged in six columns of five. The number was chosen with care. Bach's Goldberg Variations consists of an opening aria followed by thirty variations, so each little picture stands for one of them. Together the frames read like a strip of film, showing Gould leaning, hunching and gesturing over the keyboard as the music moves through its changes.

The photographs were taken by Dan Weiner on 10 June 1955, the first day of the recording sessions at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in Manhattan, and the cover was assembled from seven of his original negative strips. Gould was only 22 and almost unknown. He recorded over the course of a week in June, made at least 21 takes of the opening aria and quickly became famous among the engineers for his eccentric habits. The grid captures that restless energy better than any single portrait could.

Released in 1956, the album turned a piece considered dry and academic into a bestseller. It became Columbia's best-selling classical record and launched Gould's international career. He returned to the same studio in 1981 to record the work again, in a slower and more reflective version that was the last album made there before it closed, but the thirty young faces of 1955 remain the classic image of the piece.

Credit

Cover photographs by Dan Weiner