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Re: [F_MINOR] Quote on GG
In the Friederich biography, there's a quote from pianist Malcom Frager
that was repeated on a BBC program (uhm, programme) about Glenn Gould.
It goes like this:
"If Glenn had managed, in his personal life, to just be a little bit less
of a genius, a little bit normal, I think he'd probably still be with us. I
mean, if he'd settled down, gotten married and had children, and had
something to think about besides himself, he probably would have -- it
could only have helped his playing, could have lent it greater warmth,
greater humanity. And I think to have a happy family life is _much_ more of
a challenge than to have a career."
(...)
What would Malcolm Frager say about Emily Dickinson?! Or the Bronte
sisters? Even Dickens. :-O Besides, look at all the great musicians,
artists, and writers who marry and yet have _horrid_ family lives -- I
wonder how often that ends up hurting their art. If you doubt me, just look
at some of the books America's acclaimed modern novelists have written
during their turbulent middle years.
IIRC, there was a Frager interview in the first volume of Elyse Mach's
_Great Pianists Speak for Themselves_. Her Gould interview was also in
that first volume.
I think this later book is a reprint of both those volumes combined:
http://store.doverpublications.com/0486266958.html
(13 pianists in volume 1, 12 more in volume 2, all 25 here in this collection)
David Dubal's Gould interview is in _Reflections from the Keyboard: The
World of the Concert Pianist_: a fairly short interview about practice habits.
Incidentally, Frager isn't saying anything anymore; he died in 1991, two
years after the Friedrich book came out.
Brad Lehman
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