Re: Glenn Gould in Space

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>On Sat, 28 Feb 1998, jerry and judy wrote:
>
>>(...)
>> His Mozart and Brahms are wacky.
>> His Beethoven is uneven.  He gives the best performance I've heard of the
>> Op106 fugue.
>> His Schoenberg is right on!  Better than the more romanticized versions,
>> but not without "heart".
>> Some of his Bach is scandalous, but not boring!
>>
>> His Bryd and Gibbons are a revelation!!  Just set this one on to repeat
>> and leave it on all day!  You'll start hallucinating!  Where does this
>> *music* come from?
>> (...)
>
>I'm pretty much with you here, J&J, but would add: GG's early Brahms
>(intermezzi) isn't so much wacky as gorgeous.  Then later in his career
>his way with the first concerto and the ballades and rhapsodies approaches
>wacky.  His way with the Brahmsian pieces otherwise known as Schoenberg's
>Op. 11, too...those could be a few more Brahms intermezzi, the way he
>plays them so beautifully.

Interesting, I didn't know that he changed his *approach* during his
career, you mean like what he did with the early and late Mozart sonatas?
Oh well, atleast he was being consistent.  Also, I must be the only
Gouldian that has not heard his Brahms' D minor!  I'm spoiled though, I
rarely buy a recording of a piano concerto anymore because, now this will
sound "wacky", when I find a piano CD that has a favorable effect on me I
enjoy sitting at the piano and trying to capture the *feeling* (tactile and
visual (score) as well as aural) of the few snippets that I'm able to
satisfactorily reproduce.  Hearing is a very overrated sense in the
appreciating of music (told ya!, wacky huh?).  Anyone who is touched by
music should teach themselves to read enough music to be able to follow
along in the scores of their favorite works and performances!  Anyway it's
not the same with a concerto, I find myself making the excuse, "Well, if I
had the benefit of the orchestra..."  :->

>As for Byrd and Gibbons, I think GG's approach to those pieces is
>musically terrific in spirit and musically convincing, mostly "right on"
>(except the galliards could be more physical)...but his way with some of
>the ornaments is definitely wacky, even though (for me) this doesn't get
>in the way of the strong musical impression.  It's wonderful music.  Don't
>miss the opportunity to hear or play it on a harpsichord, too, the way it
>was intended (i.e. not on the piano and not in equal temperament).  I'd be
>the first to run three miles to the store if there were a GG "My Ladye
>Nevells Booke" for sale.

Yes, he does "hold back" in the galliards, but it gives them contemplative
depth for me.  I don't know the circumstances, but if he came into the
studio with three or four versions in his mind, maybe he had to settle on
these for continuity of mood throughout the album?  Did he think in those
terms?  In any case, I wish he had issued another offering of this material
as a second take! a la K.330!

I wouldn't mind hearing a discussion on whether music needs to be
*improved*, re-reinterpreted, using this recording as a striking example,
or whether the original composer should be the final authority in the sense
that any view of his/her pieces should fall within his/her expectations and
perspectives of so many years ago. Some days I feel one way and some days I
think how could I have ever thought that way about a performance art?

I guess I don't understand the reference, a GG "My Ladye Nevells Booke"?
The keyboard volume was prepared for Rachel, wife of Sir Edward Nevill, in
1591 by one of Byrd's colleagues at the Royal chapel, overseen by Byrd?,
and then presented to Elizabeth the first.  We can be quite sure we have
his true intentions.
Oh! I just got it!?!  Did you mean an edition with GG's ornaments written
out?  That's what I would run three miles for! in the rain!


>Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W
>bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/

Cheerio!

Jerry
Amateur pianist
Part time piano tuner
Retired meteorologist