Re: GG-Shostakovich Quintet

[Michael Arnowitt <arnowitt@sover.net>]

At 04:51 PM 02/12/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>...
>As to modernism, his approach to the Quintet is more like Schumann than
>anything else. Is this a High Romantic side of Gould emerging, or a
>backhanded commentary on Shostakovich's premodern Russian style? I know my
>jaw dropped when I read (in Friedrich?) that GG had performed the Glinka
>"Trio Pathetique" at some Festival or other in Canada. That's a piece I have
>a kind of guilty fondness for, but it's not, um, very good music; I
>described the slow movement to a friend as "a Chopin Nocturne, but without
>talent."
>

Gould in one of the interviews in the GG Reader said he liked Glinka, well,
early Glinka anyway.  I think it was in a conversation with Monsaingeon
about Mozart where they started to wander...

The original poster wondered if Gould had written anything about
Shostakovich.  Again, I think in the GG Reader there is at least one article
GG wrote surveying a number of Russian composers.  I'm sure there must be
some coverage of Shostakovich there.  I have a memory of Gould basically
saying the only truly first-rate Russian composer was Prokofiev.

As you can perhaps guess, I don't own a copy of the GG Reader -- I've always
gone to my local library (just a few blocks away) and borrowed theirs.
Recently I did try to order one from a local book store and was told it's
out of print.  I hope, if that is true, that the GG Foundation would make it
a priority to ensure that a new print run is done.

Michael