Re: Bagatelles

[Marco Poli <poli@mailserver.unimi.it>]

Sandpail wrote:

> GGs playing of the Beethoven Bagatelles are some of my favorite recordings.
> One feels a certain kind of happiness and funloving-ness in his playing.
>
> Can someone tell us a bit about how GG actually felt about these compositions
> and recordings, and perhaps about the Bagatelles themselves.  I notice these
> are recordings by GG that are not often discussed.
>
> Thanks!


I too believe that the  op. 126 Bagatelles recording is one of the
best Gould ever made (in fact I rate it on the same level of the 1981
Goldbergs).
The Bagatelles, in spite of their title suggesting lightness and
superficiality, are in my view a very important, innovative and
deeply stimulating piece of music (an opinion apparently shared by
Wilhem Backhaus: I have read somewhere that, when asked by somebody
why he never performed them in concert, his answer was "this is music
one plays for himself, not for the public").
In the past, I used to listen quite frequently to a very well played
recording by Wilhem Kempff, and got therefore used to his
interpretation.   When I first listened to Gould's recording, I found
the tempo much too slow, especially in the first G major Bagatell,
and thought that this deliberate slowness somehow disintegrated
Beethoven's message.   Then, months later, after having repeatedly
listened to Gould's playing, trying to make sense of it and to
understand the meaning he was trying to convey, I suddenly became
aware of the deep architectural structure of his interpretation: as
usual his unrivalled, altough original, sense of the global form of
the composition became evident.   Every single morceau of every
single Bagatelle is related with everything else: in a sense, you
can't understand why he played in such a way the first one before
having carefully listened until the end of the last one.
> From this moment on, this has become one of my favourite recordings,
one I frequently return to, especially when I'm in an introspective
mood ... and I always find in it something new, stimulating and
satisfying, and I'm freshly amazed by the perfect equilibrium of
Gould's playing.

So, if some of you don't know this recording, rush to get a copy, and
check by yourself.

Unfortunately, although I seem to remember I found somewhere some
short comments by GG on the Bagatelles, I've been unable to find the
reference.   I gave a quick look to the canonic books, but found
nothing.  Hopefully somebody has a better memory than I do!

Marco


--
Prof. Marco D. Poli
Istituto di Psicologia
Facoltà di Medicina
Università di Milano
via T. Pini 1
20134 Milano
ITALY
phone +39 02 2121 0200
Fax + 39 02 795227


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