The Eaton Auditorium, where the Glenn Gould recording sessions heard today took place, was opened in the "upper scale" Eaton's College Street Department store at the corner of College and Yonge in Toronto in 1930. Located on the seventh floor it was, and is, one of Toronto's best acoustic spaces. When Eaton's sold the building in 1977 the original purchasers of the property wanted to convert the auditorium into office space. Fortunately they were prevented from doing so as the gorgeous art-deco building was declared a heritage site. Unfortunately, the auditorium was sealed up and left to decay until it was restored in 2003 and rechristened The Carlu, named after the French architect Jacques Carlu who designed the original building. That's a very fitting tribute.
BTW, violinist Albert Pratz had as one of his students Jack Benny! Don't be fooled by Benny's comedy shtick as a bad violinist. You have to be a good violinist to play as badly as that!
Camille Saint-Saëns: La Princesse Jaune (Overture) Utah Symphony; Joseph Silverstein, conductor - Roman Carnival. The World's Great Overtures - Pro Arte Audio+ |
Alban Berg: Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1908) Glenn Gould, piano - The Young Glenn Gould - Fanfare |
Dmitri Shostakovich, arr. Harry Glickman: Three Fantastic Dances, Op. 5 Albert Pratz, violin; Glenn Gould, piano - The Young Glenn Gould - Fanfare |
I. March. Allegretto
II. Waltz. Andantino III. Polka. Allegretto |
Sergei Taneyev, arr. Arthur Hartmann: Poem, Op 26, No. 1: The Birth of the Harp Albert Pratz, violin; Glenn Gould, piano - The Young Glenn Gould - Fanfare |
Serge Prokofiev, arr. Mikhail Fichtenholz: Cinderella, Op. 87, Act I, No. 16: The Winter Fairy Albert Pratz, violin; Glenn Gould, piano - The Young Glenn Gould - Fanfare |
Eric Coates: March from the film The Dam Busters Concert Orchestra conducted by Eric Coates - It's the 50's - Music Club |
Virgil Thomson: Symphony on a Hymn Tune Eastman-Rochester Orchestra; Howard Hanson, conductor - Hanson conducts McPhee, Sessions, Thomson - Mercury Living Presence |
I. Introduction and Allegro
II. Andante cantabile III. Allegretto IV. Allegro |
For that was a jolly good episode. Learned a new word, ‘hymnody’. The Dam Busters piece was a nice bit of Water Music for this hot weather.
8:37 PM, July 20th, 2022