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.