Re: GG...and that harpsichord

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

From: Kate Clunies-Ross <katecluniesross@HOTMAIL.COM>
>
> Oh dear....Can I now horrify everyone and say that I actually enjoy
> listening to this particular recording? (well, occasionally!)

Well, I'm listening to it now (finally got a chance), and though it's
rather ... odd, I'm quite enjoying it.

> Yes, I have heard these criticisms before, and I must admit that when I
> first heard the CD I thought it was far and away one of the wierdest
> "harpsichord" recordings I had ever heard (I actually thought that the
> 'rubbery' sound you describe didn't sound like a harpsichord at all). But
> then...I began to enjoy it. Yup, its certainly not one of Goulds greater
> efforts in the recording studio. But he sounds as if he"s having fun...
not
> to mention making a (metaphorical) rude gesture in the direction of those
> critics that he was usually pleased to ignore.

Rubbery. Yes, that's the best word yet. But somebody's having fun inside
that tape player. Better him (and us, if we chose to follow) than those
critics who don't chose to enjoy the journey. (I won't paint all critics
with the same brush, as I write book reviews and the like. <g>)

This will sound weird, but... at times, I'm not sure if I'm listening to GG
playing a harpsichord or strumming a guitar. That could just mean that my
tape player is on the way out.

> The recording makes me smile even if I can't take it seriously.
> OK, I am no scholar, nor do I claim any great musical expertise. Bradley,
> you are no doubt tearing your hair with despair that an f_minor
subscriber
> is so hopelessly uncritical. I will go and sit in a corner and cover my
head
> with my hands in shame while everyone yells abuse at me.

Don't worry, if anybody bothers you, I'll sic Karlheinz Kloppweisser on
them.

> I expect this has probably been asked before (that is, before I
subscribed
> to F_minor): What other Gould recordings do people actually like,  even
> though  they reduced the critics to stunned disbelief?

The Art of the Fugue organ recordings -- especially the ninth fugue. Great
crusing in the car with the windows open music. Great if that !@#$ in the
car next to you tries to turn up the volume on his car stereo. (One
solitary slender guy on an organ trumps almost any loud rock band...)

Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A Major (especailly the Alla Turca).

When I'm in the right mood, I love the Wagner -- both the transcriptions
and his "conduction" of the Siefried Idyll (with the emphasis on the word
Idyll).

I adore the Sibelius "experiments" -- I'm not sure how the critics
responded to those. Not sure I want to know. ;->

Oh, and of course, the various Brahms recordings...