GG: Re: Thanks Bruce

[Michael Arnowitt <arnowitt@sover.net>]

At 04:19 PM 7/6/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>	Dear F Minors.
>
>	I had to share with you all the unalloyed joy which I have had
>today. I hold in my hand an original copy of ML 5060 - The Goldberg
>Variations.


Lucky you!  I have to admit I don't know where my parents' record that I
listened to growing up is ... I made a cassette of it, so listen to that
from time to time.  But I was in a library yesterday, and opened up their LP
box to Glenn Gould Legacy - Bach, which had some beautiful photos of GG at
the Goldberg recording session...no photo credit, though, that I could find,
other than "CBS Inc."

  


>
>...	Two questions: Is the Phillips Gallery (where Gould played on Jan 2
>1955 as mentioned in the notes) still standing?
>	And who is the other man in some of the pictures?
>	Sorry, three: Is Dan Weiner (the photographer) still alive?
>

Yes, the Phillips still presents concerts.  I'm a pianist, and I remember
contacting them once.  Apparently, if they like what you send them by mail
(the usual stuff - possible concert programs, biography, reviews, sample
recordings, recommendations, and so forth) - they ask you to do a live
audition for the director of the series.  While it is certainly true that
many concert sponsors especially of larger-budget organizations prefer to
have heard you play live before hiring you, in about 15 years now as a
professional concert pianist, this is the *only* series that required you to
come down to do a special command performance for one person before they
would put you on their series.  Obviously, that they do this would indicate
they feel they're a quite prestigious series (I'm sure the history of
Glenn's connection didn't hurt!)

Perhaps my experiences (which I'm sure are quite generally true) that so
many concert series hire performers from recordings alone - people they have
never heard play live - is testament to Glenn's correct foretelling of the
enormous future importance and influence of recordings.  Even people running
live concert series judge off recordings - once in a while, someone will
request from me a recording from a live concert, but those sorts of requests
are extremely rare (probably under 5% of people contacted).

Michael