Re: Gould's 1st contrapunctus

["Baldwin, Daniel" <baldwin@baermarks.com>]

I looked throught the Richter book yesterday at Barnes & Noble. I only had
time to check the index for references to GG. There's some interesting
tidbits where Richter compares GG's perf of the partitas with some other
perfs [by a Russian painist whose name escapes me]. In essence, Richter says
that the principal virtue of GG's Bach playing is his sonority, which
Richter finds uniquely suited to Bach. He faults GG for not playing with
sufficient "spirituality," and he is particularly critical of the fact that
GG does not observe repeats; he says that if you skip the repeats, you don't
really love Bach!

Richter also talks about GG's recording of Hindemith piano sonata -- he
dislikes GG's treatment, except for the last movement; there, he praises
GG's technical prowess, and says that the movement goes by too fast for GG
to do any "monkeying around."

In the Richter Enigma film, GG was very flattering to Richter; I guess the
feeling was not mutual.

Regards to all -- I'm glad to see that our list has awakened from its
collective slumber (Winter hibernation?)

Daniel

-----Original Message-----
From: Bradley Lehman [mailto:bpl@UMICH.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 2:54 PM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: Gould's 1st contrapunctus


>oh please Sean, don't tease us like that.  What kind of research have you
>been doing, and who better to share it with than this list?  Any thoughts
on
>reconciling the idea that the visual aspects of a performance can help the
>appreciation of the musical experience (to which I add, of course it can,
>though I see how the subject can quickly get complicated)  with Gould's
>attitude towards concerts, his renunciation of the stage.  Certainly
>performing music requires attention to the body, so why not, I imagine some
>reasoning must go, attend to this area while listening to music?

Second this.  More please, Sean!

>And just what the heck were you doing hanging out with Monsaingeon, who
>recently had a book he worked on called Sviatoslav Richter : Notebooks and
>Conversations published in the States.  Anyone seen it?  I know I was very
>impressed with Monsaingeon film on Richter "The Enigma."


I tried to look through that Richter book in a bookshop last week, but it
comes wrapped in plastic.  D'ohh!  What is it that they have to seal
it?  X-rated or something?


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

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