Re: GG Studio recordings by heart?

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Tim Conway wrote:

> Timothy Maloney made the same point in his hypothesis about GG's being
> partly autistic (Asperger's Syndrome). In the same way that some
> Asperger's sufferers can view a large and complex building for a few
> seconds then sketch it in great and accurate detail a year later without
> having seen the building since, GG (so I read) could read a score once
> (and not just keyboard music) and recall it accurately years later, never
> having seen or heard it since.
>
> However, that may all be hyperbole or wishful thinking on the part of
> GG's contemporaries...or faulty memory on my part. Has anyone any
> _factual_ knowledge about GG's memory and whether he ever needed to see a
> score more than once?

How about the story GG told on himself about conducting a complex chamber
work from the piano?  He allegedly knew all the parts very well,
compositionally...but had neglected to notice which notes of the whole
were supposed to be played by himself!  So he used a score to make sure he
didn't accidentally double someone else's part....

[Anybody remember which piece this was, and where the story is told?  I
remember reading it about 15 years ago, but don't remember where I saw it.
I think the piece was by Schoenberg, but it might have been Berg or
Webern....]


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl  or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot