Re: GG Posture

[Tim Conway <timcon@COMSWEST.NET.AU>]

Anne Smith wrote:

>GG ".............Now, there is another reason that I have rejected certain
>music and that is that, physically speaking, I sit very low at the piano and
>while I think this position is advantageous for most things, there is one
>thing it makes one lack and that is a real fortissimo, and one needs a real
>fortissimo to play Tchaikovsky.  In that position you just can't get it."

Many thanks for the quote, Anne. "The Art of Glenn Gould" is a book I
haven't got. However, just two more questions:

1. GG says "...Now, there is another reason...", so presumably there were
some other reasons for his not playing much Romantic music. Does he say
what they are in the interview?

2. Are Tchaikovsky's fortissimos more fortissimo (say ffff) than other
composers' fortissimos (say fff), specifically the composers GG did play?
Some of Beethoven's music calls for some pretty loud and thunderous
stuff, even if Bach's and Mozart's doesn't. And what about GG's rendition
of La Valse? That seems to be ffff for all three (it seems) hands for
long periods. And what about other Romantics like Schumann and early
Romantics like Schubert, let alone Liszt and Mendelssohn? Did they all
also call for fortissimi like Tchaikovsky's?

I just get the feeling that GG chucked in the "Oh, and I also sit too low
to play really loud" reason as an afterthought, or the sort of thing that
might convince an interviewer and make him move on to another question. I
haven't read all of GG's writings and biographies but I don't think he
admits anywhere else to a technical shortcoming of this nature. Or does
he?

No doubt GG had excellent reasons for not playing many of the Romantics
and other composers, but I think his posture-reason is very
tongue-in-cheek, very "Let's see if I can get away with this". Or have I
over-estimated his sense of humour?


Tim Conway
Broome, WA, Oz