Published in 1741 in Nuremberg as Clavier-Übung IV. Traditionally composed for the two-manual harpsichord and linked to Count Kaiserling's insomnia, it was long regarded as an academic and technically demanding exercise.
The sensational 1955 debut album by 22-year-old Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Gould stripped the piece of romantic mannerisms, using radical tempos and crisp articulation to catapult it into an international phenomenon.
An epoch-making transformation that rewired 18th-century baroque counterpoint into a modernist sonic architecture driven by dry, percussive piano attack and pioneering studio tape-editing.