[f_minor] more on R.Tureck and GG

Tue Aug 10 17:19:45 EDT 2010

Hi Elaine and all,

AROTL!  In this book Katie Hafner unfolds the brilliantly entwined stories of Glenn Gould, Vern Edquist, Steinway & Son's, and most importantly, 
the beloved piano CD318.  It's a must-read page turner to which I will definitely go back over and over again. 
The author talks about her book on YouTube Authors at Google:  http://youtu.be/ow_ZGVGmfAw

Best,
SDC

From: Elaine Parks 
Date: Monday, August 09, 2010 8:36 PM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org 
Subject: [f_minor] more on R.Tureck and GG

      I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with Katie Hafner's terrific book "A Romance on Three Legs: GG's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano". It's a must-read for those of you who actually play the piano professionally and a really interesting book for the rest of us. Anyway she describes Tureck literally experiencing a revelation about Bach's music which led to her knowing she "had to create an entirely new technique for playing the piano as a result"; and also that she certainly did some trailblazing in playing the Goldbergs at Juilliard. Hafner does say Tureck was "put out by Gould's achievement" and her Bach became "yesterday's news" when his Goldbergs album made him a star. 

      I think it's somewhere in a radio interview Tureck very graciously says something to the effect that she's flattered by Gould's praise of her Bach; in another book (sorry I don't remember which at the moment) it's recalled she said more bitterly "he played them the way I did" or close to those words. One has to feel for her.

      To return to Katie Hafner's book, she writes about GG's superhuman speed and that "Gould's playing resembled Tureck's, but his tone was more seductive, and his approach, especially in terms of rhythm, was more dynamic...with one recording GG proved that he could play the piano like nobody else in the world".

      Personally I find her version very beautiful and other-worldly (is that a word?!) But I find his mesmerizing. Maybe it can rightly be said that without her example, his GVs wouldn't have been the way they were.

      That book gets a lot into the mechanics of how pianos were/are made and what different famous pianists liked in the action/tone/keys etc. of their pianos; and how a tuner spends literally dozens of years perfecting his or her craft. Amazing stuff.

      Cheers, Elaine

      --- On Sat, 8/7/10, f_minor-request at glenngould.org <f_minor-request at glenngould.org> wrote:

        From: f_minor-request at glenngould.org <f_minor-request at glenngould.org>
        Subject: f_minor Digest, Vol 5, Issue 6
        To: f_minor at glenngould.org
        Received: Saturday, August 7, 2010, 4:00 PM

        Send f_minor mailing list submissions to
            f_minor at glenngould.org

        To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
            http://ff0.org/mailman/listinfo/f_minor
        or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
            f_minor-request at glenngould.org

        You can reach the person managing the list at
            f_minor-owner at glenngould.org

        When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
        than "Re: Contents of f_minor digest..."

        Today's Topics:

           1. Re: Tureck and Gould (StudioDaCapo)

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------

        Message: 1
        Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 08:58:16 -0700
        From: "StudioDaCapo" <StudioDaCapo at hotmail.com>
        To: "Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould."
            <f_minor at glenngould.org>
        Subject: Re: [f_minor] Tureck and Gould
        Message-ID: <SNT115-DS426C70159F1F8441B0C00C7920 at phx.gbl>
        Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

        Thank you, Elaine, for your marvelous info.  It's so nice to have a corroborating guidance.
        For me (as my subjective opinion) Tureck's influence on Gould goes without saying, 
        and perhaps this is why the both players go hand in hand on my list, without belittling others, as the best female and male Bach player.

        Have a good weekend.
        SDC

        From: Elaine Parks 
        Date: Thursday, August 05, 2010 2:17 PM
        To: f_minor at glenngould.org 
        Subject: Re: [f_minor] Tureck and Gould

              Indeed GG credits Tureck with having greatly ifluenced his playing of Bach. You can find one of these instances in Jonathan Cott's interviews ("Conversations with Glenn Gould"): "I did like Tureck's recordings enormously - Tureck influenced me...she was the first person who played Bach in what seemed to me a sensible way...playing of such uprightness". 

               Cheers, Elaine

              --- On Thu, 8/5/10, f_minor-request at glenngould.org <f_minor-request at glenngould.org> wrote:

                From: f_minor-request at glenngould.org <f_minor-request at glenngould.org>
                Subject: f_minor Digest, Vol 5, Issue 4
                To: f_minor at glenngould.org
                Received: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 4:00 PM

                Send f_minor mailing list submissions to
                    f_minor at glenngould.org

                To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
                    http://ff0.org/mailman/listinfo/f_minor
                or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
                    f_minor-request at glenngould.org

                You can reach the person managing the list at
                    f_minor-owner at glenngould.org

                When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
                than "Re: Contents of f_minor digest..."

                Today's Topics:

                   1. If Rosalyn Tureck... (maryellen jensen)

                ----------------------------------------------------------------------

                Message: 1
                Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 21:19:00 +0200
                From: maryellen jensen <maryellenjensen28 at hotmail.com>
                To: <f_minor at glenngould.org>
                Subject: [f_minor] If Rosalyn Tureck...
                Message-ID: <SNT111-W6042F78D1EA040C33C984B5AF0 at phx.gbl>
                Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

                Believe me, I'm not going to be banging on about this forever but if while you're listening to this you are not also in mind of Gould's 1981-82 recording then pardon me but you haven't listened to Gould's second Goldberg. 
                Microsoft hotmail has does something bizarre by offering a little video box at the beginning of each email which I did not ask for. Forget that box and go to the hyperlink instead.

                http:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=HExHrFt2pPM&feature=related

                Mary Jensen    

                -------------- next part --------------
                An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
                URL: <http://ff0.org/pipermail/f_minor/attachments/20100804/e1dbb87f/attachment-0001.html>

                End of f_minor Digest, Vol 5, Issue 4
                *************************************

        --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        -------------- next part --------------
        An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
        URL: <http://ff0.org/pipermail/f_minor/attachments/20100807/5143f1fa/attachment-0001.html>

        End of f_minor Digest, Vol 5, Issue 6
        *************************************

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ff0.org/pipermail/f_minor/attachments/20100810/aa84a068/attachment.html>