Gould's Berg

[mcentury@citi.doc.ca (Michael Century)]

I'm not sure how many pianists are following this list,
but in partial reply to the question about '12-tone' music,
I have this personal recollection to offer.  As a teenager,
and a serious piano student, hearing Gould's recording
of Berg's Opus 1 was a shattering, revelatory experience.  I
determined then and there to learn and perform the piece.
I don't think anyone since has made a more convincing
projection of this work, though Barenboim's reading
is polished, but lacking Gould's immense depth and
polyphonic independence.

By the way, this work predated Berg's adopting
the twelve-tone method.  If Schoenberg could
be heard, as someone else suggested, as a younger
contemporary of Richard Strauss, then early
Berg was most definitely the same to Mahler.

Michael Century
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