gould conductor video

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi Fminor,

I was watching my Gould the Conductor video last night, volume 5 of the
series.

Interesting film.  You can't see Gould doing much conducting because he's
playing the harpsipiano on both the Bach Cantata and The Fifth Brandenburg
Concerto, both are filmed in black and white

The Cantata 54 is was an especially odd Gouldian moment to me because I
finally got to hear the infamous harpsipiano accompanied (suprise to me) by
the contratenor Russell Oberlin.  I had no idea he was a contratenor until
he started singing.

The harpsipiano and a contratenor:  music doesn't get much better than that.

(Hey, that's kind of a joke, and not that I'm making in gender/sexuality
slurs, but I'd rather her an alto than a contratenor, and a piano or
harpsichord rather than the harpsipiano.)

The most powerful moments in the film, for me, came in the middle section,
shot in color, which spliced together Gould walking about the rustic
environment of Wawa on Lake Superior (talking to the camera about how much
he enjoys the solitude and the non-artists he meets up there) and
performance excerpts from the Liszt transcription of the Beethoven's Sixth
Symphony.  (Pastoral Symphony and Wawa, get it?)

  Microphones recording the performance are clearly visible, and the camera
occasionally pans to the hundreds of empty seats in the auditorium.
Emotionally charged moment, more dramatic than most of the scenes I've seen
in these videos.


Certainly a tape worth more than the ten dollars I paid for it.

Once again, Anne Marble, thanks for alterting us to the more than half-off
sale prices at Amazon.

Jim