Re: GG: A Hearty Slap on the Back...

[Jeremy Smith <jcs@grove.ufl.edu>]

What always has interested me about the back slap was how Gould
immediately decided that he'd been hurt.  I don't have any of my GG books
with me, but I seem to remember that right after the guy left, Gould
looked to another person in the room and said "He *hurt* me."  (I think
the italics were in the original.)

I feel, naively, that this tells us something, but I'm not sure what it
is.  I used to think that he just was just over-anxious about injuries
that would hinder his piano playing.  The idea was that he immediately
thought that this would hurt his playing, and worried about it so much
that he had some kind of psychosomatic effect.  But then I read a story
(was it maybe on this list?) about a conductor accidentally *stepping* on
GG hands and GG not seeming to care at all.  So that makes me think that
maybe he just didn't like the Steinway guy, or didn't like people
purposely touching him, or something.

Sorry about these unproductive musings.  From now on, I'll leave things to
the professionals.

-Jeremy