Re: Mikko Sorsa's questions

[Allan MacLeod <allan.macleod@usask.ca>]

The first Goldbergs are an absolutely essential part of any record
collection, much less a Gould collection.  The recording is historic.
Not only did it make Gould famous, but iot also resurrected interest in
Bach's music generally.  It is a vigorous and speedy recording, full of
life anf joy and, despite Gould's recording techniques, spontaneity.
The later Sony recording is good but it is not quite as good.  But it is
special insofar as it was released almost simultaneously with his death,
so that the Goldbergs bookended his career to some extent (there were a
few recordings released posthumously however).  Also, the whole tone of
the later Goldbergs seems valedictory; this was well illustrated by the
effect the playing of the aria from the later recording had at his
memorial service in Toronto.  It sounded like a personal farewell from
Gould.
Gould, according to all the sources, was friendly, and even
co-operative.  In one instance, he stepped in at the last moment to
record a performance of the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with the Toronto
Symphony under Ancerl when  Michelangeli, not unsurprisingly, backed out
with almost no notice.  But he could be demanding.  He was fortunate to
find many loyal friends who put up with his long, late-night calls and
it is very revealing that in this tell-all age, few of his friends are
telling us much.  But the Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti also has
feelings about him like Kazdin's.  It seems as if Gould could take
offense at a comment and cut off a friend forever after.  He was no
angel, then , but then who is, and as piano stars go, he was probably
less tempermental than most.  Indeed, his desire to please may be one of
the reasons he felt it necessary to isolate himself.

On the subject of Gould's spirituality and wrong-notes, I wonder if
Gould wasn't at heart a Romantic?  He believed in a transcendental world
of perfect forms and performances, in the way that Shelley did.  There
was a beyond that spoke to us through music and his favourite composer
was Gibbons who composed mostly sacred choral music.  Bach was one of
those composers most in contact with that beyond, but occasionally he
got it wrong, so that Gould would have to correct him to realize the
perfection that Bach had sought to realized but missed.  This spiritual
dimension may explain his interest in becoming a conductor.  We know he
wanted to conduct the B-minor mass; perhaps he would have recorded some
of the cantatas as well as music by Gibbons and some of Schoenberg's
choral work.  We know that he wanted to record Verklaerte Nacht and
Strauss' Metamorphosen.  All this suggests that he wanted to give
expression to a transcendence that the piano was poorly suited to do.