Re: GG's version of the last movement of Chopin's Bm

[neil@thump.org (Neil)]

On Tue, 2 Feb 1999 20:12:18 -0700, you wrote:

>I meant
>that if music is to be seen as representing the inner state of a man then the
>state of such a man that Gould's performance of this movement represents
>would be one of madness, the madness of one driven to an abyss of darkness
>and despair.

I've always seen the 3rd as an unruly mess. Gould's "performance" (or call it a
casual run through under pressure from CBC executives) is an attempt at applying
some Gouldian structual glue to this work. He plays the last movement the way he
does because its the strongest movement and one which works especially well when
given enough motivic impetus as Rubinsteins and others did. 

I've never found his performance  quite as objectionable as the Mozart sonatas -
its a performance which I rather enjoy because as with a work such as the
Emperor, any serious attempts to make it work either bore me or make me laugh. 

Some people react very violently to such casual dessecration of Chopin and I do
sympathise. 

For the record, I've had another bash (meaning "listen" ) at the Mozart sonatas
and still loathe them. They give me a headache and make me want to trash all my
other Gould recordings.  The whole enterprise smacks of  schoolboy naughtiness
and childish precocity on a grand and intellectually elaborated scale.

I'm going through an anti-gould phase at the moment I think. After hearing
Yudina, Tureck and Richter in Bach, I'm having doubts....my faith is wavering.

You know its good and healthy to object violenly to some Gould performances...
the English suites....Lets bash GG a bit more sometimes. He was not perfect or
right all the time.

I'm beginning to understand why one writer on piano music has gone to such
lengths as to equate GG with Liberace.

Mind you we have someone on rec.music.classical.recordings trying to do a hachet
job on Igor Zhukov. Why do people get so stirred up about musicians sometimes
???? Its as thought their whole being depends on them having the final insight
into a composer's music. Anyone who challenges their assumptions becomes the
devil.

On another totally unrelated note, has anyone heard Richter's 3 last Beethoven
sonatas on Revelation. op 111 is right up there with the sublime, heavenly
Schnabel readings. 

Neil

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