Re: [F_minor] Keith Jarrett's Goldberg Variations

[Brad Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

> I wonder what the response would be if Gould had recorded the Goldbergs on
> a harpsichord. Rather different I suspect.
>
> Didn't he record some Handel or something on a harpsichord? He must of had
> an opinion about the relevance of baroque instruments in the modern age.
> Anyone aware of the great GG's stance?

In Gould's letters and essays, he made it clear that he had NO interest 
in playing historically accurate harpsichords.  [Or with any 
historically sensitive techniques to handle one, I'd add.]  He chose to 
play a friend's Wittmayer(*) harpsichord specifically because it was the 
most like a piano that he could find.  And Gould was more interested in 
its touch than its tone.


(*) A mid-20th-century factory-produced model, the kind for organists 
and pianists to dabble with instead of taking harpsichord lessons....


Brad Lehman
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