[f_minor] Gould and Rachmaninoff

[Cline, Eric]

Gould's recording of Chopin's Third Sonata for some reason has a sort of
naughty boy feel to it - something done tongue in cheek as if he wanted
to annoy a teacher. I wonder if there was a naughty boy smirk on his
face as he played this piece. Wasn't the recording taken from a
broadcast of some sort - which would account for the audio being sub
par.

It reminds me of a quote by Beethoven about Rossini:

"Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him
enough on the backside." - Beethoven. 

Eric Cline 

-----Original Message-----
From: f_minor-bounces at glenngould.org
[mailto:f_minor-bounces at glenngould.org] On Behalf Of Brad Lehman
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 3:50 PM
To: Houpt, Fred
Cc: Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
Subject: Re: [f_minor] Gould and Rachmaninoff

On 7/15/2010 1:13 PM, Houpt, Fred wrote:
> Has anyone listened to this one?
>
>
http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-Mendelssohn-Scriabin-Prokofiev/dp/B000
> 0028NQ/ref=pd_sim_m_2
>
> He recorded Mendelssohn? Wha???? News to me

I have the earlier releases of that Mendelssohn and Chopin, when they 
were Music & Arts CDs (that had to get withdrawn when the estate and 
Sony got uppity).  The Mendelssohn struck me as OK but not really 
special or memorable.

The Chopin, on the other hand, was more bizarre than anyone could 
rightly expect, even for Gould.  Tempo and dynamics flattened out. 
First movement "Allegro maestoso" slow, and not really resembling 
Allegro.  Left-hand figurations as noisy as he did in some of the 
Mozart.  I have it on right now, for weird old times' sake.

Sub-par sound for 1970, too...and some tape unsteadiness.  Did the Sony 
issue fix any of that?


Brad Lehman