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The other day I was listening to Gould's marvelous recording
of the Beethoven Piano Sonata No 32 Op 111. It’s is an early recording
from -56, recorded not long after he made his first Goldberg recording. Knowing
how his view of the Goldbergs changed after some 25 years and I begun to wonder
if he ever was tempted to re-record the three late Beethoven Sonatas. Do any of
you know if he ever intended to do so? And I do not mean that he was tempted to do so because of
the fact that he received a lot of criticism of this recordings, but for the
pure fact that maybe he had something new to say about them. But perhaps he
felt that he had said all he had to say about them. One fact pointing to that is
his sleeve notes to the recordings that reveals that he thought these late
sonatas were overrated (one of his views that I do not agree with at all). But on
the other hand he developed and changed his attitude towards other works a lot
over the years, so perhaps he held them in an higher esteem towards the end of
his life than he did when he was 24. His more deliberate approach in the Goldbergs from -81 makes
one speculate on how for instance he would treat the Beethoven Sonata No 32. To
me it seems like a work that could benefit from a more calculated way of
playing and I’m sure that Gould in his later years would have an new and fresh
idea of how to play it, be it more or less calculated than the way he recorded
it -56. Having said that I must add that I love the -56 recording, the audacity
and the fearlessness of Gould's playing. But I guess that more than I would
have owned a Gould recording of Op 32 from 2005, had it existed! If you were to
choose one work for Gould to re-record, which would it be? /Kristian Johansson ************************************************** Signoff instructions, and user preference interface F_minor Website ************************************************** |