The Acoustic Orchestrations features Scriabin’s virtuosic Piano Sonata No. 5, recorded by Gould in 1970 and presented here, for the first time, in the fully “orchestrated” form Gould intended but never fully realized during his lifetime. The restoration and realization of the Scrabin recording is the work of Gould scholar, Paul Théberge, who says: “The Sonata No. 5 was the first, and most ambitious of Gould’s multi-track experiments: employing numerous microphones spread throughout the studio and recorded onto 8-track tape, Gould planned his final mixes much as a film director might assemble a film from a series of close-ups and long shots, hard cuts and dissolves. The results are, by turn, subtle and dramatic, lending an acoustic dimension to the recorded music that is truly “orchestral” in character.”
The release also includes a new multi-track mix of two preludes by Scriabin and previously released recordings of music by Sibelius that offer further insights into Gould’s technique.
