Re: GG in the Moonlight

[Juozas Rimas <JuozasRimas@TAKAS.LT>]

> >("Glenn Gould didn't play Bach," my neighbor informed me.  "He played
> >Glenn Gould."  I still don't know if this was praise or criticism.).

No one can play Bach except for himself. I don't understand why people often say
after a concert: "Yes, this is the real Chopin!" or "No, it's not Chopin". Do
they know what is the real Chopin? (they, however, can hear what the real, for
instance, Rakhmaninov is when listening to his own recordings).

The are performers whose understanding of a composer matches the public
understanding of the composer and it seems for the public that the performer
reproduces the original exactly. GG is not regarded to be such a performer.

So, in a way, GG played himself rather than Bach.

However, I think this applies mostly to the musical text, notes. Bold
interpreters like GG resemble me the translators of poetry or prose. One
translator that I can't remember now said that translation is the ability to
sacrifice parts for the benefit of the wholeness. So the statement about GG
playing GG is too narrow for me: I prefer to think that GG made a good
translation of Bach instead.

Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing)
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/141/juozas_rimas.html