Re: GG:Final Sony GG edition - Art of Fugue

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Mary Jo Watts wrote:

> <Emphatically> I think that _The Art of the Fugue_ CD is worth the cash.
> 7 of the 16 tracks are played by GG on the piano-- culled from the
> videos and unreleased recordings.  

I finally splurged for it this morning and am glad to have it.  The organ
parts of the disc seem to sound better than on the earlier CD issue I have
(the occasional finger flubs also emerge more clearly), and of course I
bought it mostly to hear the piano tracks.  Worth hearing. 

Cp 13 is especially interesting to me.  A lot of the literature about the
Art of Fugue states that Cp 13 is impossible to play, which is just so
much bologna obvious to anyone who's actually worked on it at the
keyboard.  Yes, it's very difficult and has some awkward hand stretches (I
had an easier time with it on Italian harpsichords than other harpsichords
I played it on, because of a slightly narrower octave).  And it requires a
very relaxed hand.  But it's perfectly playable...except for *one*
isolated spot that is easily faked.  Low G, middle C#, high Bb all played
together; I simply move the C# up an octave.  So I heard Gould launch into
Cp 13, eager to hear how he faked that spot, ...and then he doesn't play
that mirror version!  Half of Cp 13 is missing!  Argh.  (Moroney on his
harpsichord recording fakes it by overdubbing that voice.)  Anyway, the
presence of even half of it here should help disprove that recursive
"common knowledge" about unplayability in some people's minds.  Cp 12
(both the rectus and inversus versions) is harder anyway, tough to play in
any manner except deer-in-the-headlights-hoping-for-the-best...and Gould
doesn't play that one at all either.  It could have been terrific,
especially if he had multitracked it (as Gilbert did on his harpsichord
recording). 

The next big shock was the end of the unfinished Cp 14; I haven't seen the
video.  The recording cuts off in the wrong spot, with Gould playing two
notes that aren't in the piece!  Yes, the original print version of Cp 14
stops there on a half cadence, without those two notes.  But the earlier
autograph version (from the early 1740's, and in keyboard score instead of
open score) has another eight or so measures beyond that spot, and *then*
it breaks off.  Most people go on to play those, and then either break it
off suddenly or continue into someone else's composed completion.
Interestingly, the two notes Gould adds out of nowhere are "AF".  So far
on three playthroughs I find the whole performance of Cp 14 too slow and
square, lacking cumulative energy, and creepy in the same way that some of
the 1981 Goldbergs are (like Bach having an out-of-body experience).  Bach
in the early 1740's wasn't even "mostly dead."  And everything dissipates
the second the B-A-C-H subject comes in.  And too much off-key humming! 

I'm not very pleased with the way Gould treats my favorite Cp 11, either,
speeding up for several sections.  Destroys the architecture when those
subjects come back later, having been presented at the wrong speed in the
first place.  And it hurts the cumulative drama of the piece.  It's the
same kind of gripe Gould himself had in his program notes about the
Hindemith sonatas, right?  Most Gould's Cp 11 is too fast to hear the
harrowing chromatic stuff, anyway.

Oh well. 

Grouchily,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley Lehman, bpl@umich.edu       http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/