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Re: GG - importance of bass
- To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
- Subject: Re: GG - importance of bass
- From: Michael Arnowitt <arnowitt@sover.net>
- Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:10:47 -0500
- Comments: SoVerNet Verification (on pike.sover.net)default from pm0a9.mont.sover.net [209.198.93.137] 209.198.93.137Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:02:24 -0500 (EST)
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>
>Who else besides Savall makes textures rise out of a firm bass like this
>(not just in the Brandenburgs, but in general philosophy of musical
>interpretation)? The three examples that come first to mind are Nikolaus
>Harnoncourt (another bowed-bassline player himself), Leopold Stokowski
>(ex-organist) and Glenn Gould (lefty and sitting low).
>
Total agreement with these and other comments later on in Brad's post about
GG's strong left-hand. At the GG conference in Toronto last fall, they
played three pianists all doing the same Bach prelude (think it was A major
from WTC 2): Tureck, Gould, and an old recording, I think, of Edwin
Fischer's. The comparison was very striking. The main difference to me
wasn't tempo so much as the fact that Gould's left-hand bass line was so
much stronger ... the music had twice as much life to it. The others
sounded sleepy by comparison.
Of course, Casals, being a cellist, also is satisfying in this way. But I
grew up with his Brandenburgs, so I'm naturally very, very sentimentally
attached to them. I'll try some of the other recordings Brad recommended.
Michael