Re: GG: any opinion on Sweelinck?

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

>     1)  Did GG ever express an opinion about the music of Jan Sweelinck?  I've
> 
> I don't remember him ever mentioning Sweelinck except in passing, but he
> (as you may know) did play one of S's fantasias (in `d minor', really
> Dorian mode I think, or some mode) for a TV program, shown in one of the
> Sony videos.  It got included on the Sony CD of the `early music'
> (Gibbons & Byrd).

And there's a different GG performance of this same piece in the Salzburg
recital that also had the Goldbergs, the Mozart Sonata #10, and the
Schoenberg Suite.

Interpretively, he gives this piece several major and startling tempo
shifts that are not suggested by the notation.  He uses tempo as a
terracing device from section to section, just as one could change
articulation, registration, or dynamics to make similar analytical points
on various instruments.  In this way it's similar to the GG performance(s)
of Bach's Contrapunctus 11 from the Art of Fugue.  It's an intriguing idea
in both pieces, increasing the contrasts and highlighting motivic
relationships across sections in proportions the composers probably did
not intend.  It's not a mainstream interpretation of either piece, but
when did anyone suspect or accuse GG of being mainstream anyway?  (Same
observations for the E-flat Prelude of WTC 1: sudden tempo shifts changing
the relative proportions of the sections.)

He does the last few bars of the Gibbons "Salisbury" Pavan switching
suddenly to half speed, too, but it's printed that way in some editions
(including the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, which also contains the
Sweelinck fantasia).  This particular gear change might or might not have
been a willful choice on GG's part, whereas the above examples certainly
are.

Anybody know if GG's driving style in Lance and Longfellow would be
applicable here?  Did he enjoy suddenly changing speed on the highway?
Were those two cars automatic transmission or manual?

Bradley Lehman ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ 
Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45N+78.94W