Albums · Skopia

Every record chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
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6 records

Goldberg Variations

1741

The pianist Glenn Gould plays it fast and dry and hums audibly throughout, which the engineers could never get him to stop doing.

★ 9.6

1727

Two choirs and two orchestras face each other across the church and answer one another, while a boys' choir cuts through both from above.

★ 9.6

1749

Bach assembled it late in life partly from music he had written decades earlier, and never heard the whole thing performed in his lifetime.

★ 9.4

1741

Handel wrote it for a Dublin charity concert, and the hall asked women to come without hoops in their skirts so more people could fit.

★ 9.1

1725

Vivaldi spent most of his career teaching at a Venice orphanage for girls, whose orchestra became famous enough that travelers came to hear it.

★ 8.3

1607

The first performance was in a room at the Mantuan court for a few dozen listeners, and the printed score names every instrument required.

★ 7.3