Glenn Gould was born in Toronto on September 25, 1932, a prodigy almost before he could reach the pedals: taught first by his mother, performing at the Royal Conservatory at ten, and passing its diploma examinations at thirteen. His 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations made him an international star — he played sitting low over the keys in a battered chair his father had fitted for him, humming along and conducting the counterpoint with his free hand.

Then, in 1964, at the height of his fame and only 31, Gould gave his last concert and never performed in public again. Convinced the studio was music's future, he poured the rest of his life into recordings, CBC broadcasts, essays, and his radio 'contrapuntal documentaries,' the Solitude Trilogy. He died of a stroke on October 4, 1982, days after his fiftieth birthday — and just as his celebrated re-recording of the Goldberg Variations, the work that bookended his career, reached the world.