“In any case, Gould’s relentless quest for musical perfection made him a natural for the studio, where he was free to record take after take and to meticulously assemble the results into an immaculate rendition of a given piece of music. The wonder of it was that, rather than producing sterile, hermetically sealed recordings, Gould’s technical manipulation — or ‘creative lying,’ as he called it — left behind a rich spectrum of recorded performances that speak to contemporary ears with astonishing immediacy.”