GG Posture and Romantic Composers

[Anne Smith <smithqa@nexicom.net>]

Hi Tim and all,

> Many thanks for the quote, Anne. "The Art of Glenn Gould" is a book I
> haven't got.

You are very welcome.  I highly recommend this book.

>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?

Page 40:
"B. Speaking of Tchaikovsky, why is it you don't care to play the so-called
Romantic composers as much as you do Bach and Beethoven, or Schoenberg?
GG Actually, I am very much a Romantic.  There are a great many composers of
the 19th. century whom I would play with the greatest pleasure, had they
provided any substantial literature for the piano."

This is a loaded statement.  Most people consider the 19th century the time
when the piano came into its own.  Most of us think that Chopin wrote
"substantial literature for the piano."  I think perhaps that GG just did
not like
the piano music of the Romantic composers. He seemed to like their
orchestral work better.

> 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,

I have not played any of Tchaikovsky's major works.  You are right about
Beethoven's music.    A pianist uses the weight of his/her body to play a
fortissimo.  The weight
comes down from the shoulders through the arms. There are several techniques
that we use to keep the sound from being harsh.  This does not explain why a
100 lb. woman can play a fortissimo as well as a 200 lb. man.  There are a
great many books around that explain the physical aspects of playing the
piano.  If you really want to understand how it is done you need to do it
yourself.

I have no idea how Glenn Gould was able to play Beethoven's music so well.


> 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?

It is hard to tell from a written interview if he was joking.  As I said in
an earlier post, we all have composers that we like and those
that we don't like.  I think that it is wonderful that GG got away with just
playing the ones that he liked.

Anne