Re: Glenn Gould in "The True Life of J.S. Bach"

[sara meneses <saralmeneses@yahoo.com>]

Hello Allan and list:

I only have a partial comment about your inquiry and I
thank you for saying something like this because I was
for a while thinking of a related question.
We always hear that Gould´s greatest quality is
clarity and that he didn´t go for colors in music. But
I do hear some colors in his music. I agree with you,
he is dry sometimes he is reserved in his singing
style but yet he shows colors. They are so subtle so
delicate and to me, that is why we love his playing
the
way we do. But I also agree there are so many other
pianists that are so talented. Maybe Gould was also
extra charismatic and people payed so much attention
to
him and his "unique" lifestyle than that also
indirectly made him more irresistible. But I am sure
there are other things too, I just can´t think of them
right now.

waiting for more thoughts.

Sara
--- Allan MacLeod <armacleod@SK.SYMPATICO.CA> wrote:
> I have been thinking about this myself recently--why
> does Gould seem on
> the one hand to have a longer-lasting postmortem
> reputation than some
> other great pianists who have died in the last few
> decades and why do I
> like his peformances?  The recent recordings by
> Perhaia and some of the
> recordings from the Great Pianist series have led me
> to question the
> quality of Gould's interpretations, precisely
> because they lack the
> singing quality and also because the acoustics are
> so dry.  But they are
> stunningly precise and transparent--as if you could
> see the score as he
> played them.  When I consider how much of Bach is
> based on what are
> dance suites inspired by the likes of Rameau and
> Lully and Purcell, and
> as I have become more acquainted with their music,
> the lack of warmth
> and feeling and song in Gould's interpretations of
> just about everyone
> except Brahms becomes both obvious and
> disappointing.  But then why is
> it that he is the defining pianist of his period?
>    He also shows up in discussions of music in The
> Last Samurai by Helen
> DeWitt.  A pianist in that novel has ideas even
> stranger than Gould's.
> But what is interesting is that even if the
> perception is critical, he
> is considered worth wriitng about.  It is noteworthy
> that Edward Said
> has written about him often too.
>         Allan MacLeod
>
> Anne Smith wrote:
>
> > Has anyone read "The True Life of J.S. Bach" by
> Klaus Eidam?  This is
> > a fairly new biography.  The German copyright is
> 1999 and the English
> > translation copyright is 2001. Klaus Eidam takes
> issue with Bach's
> > previous biographers  Philipp Spitta, Charles
> Sanford Terry, Albert
> > Schweitzer and almost every musicologist who has
> ever written anything
> > about Bach.  He makes some good points.  You may
> not agree with
> > everything he says.  This is certainly different
> than any other Bach
> > book on the market.  From page 138:"Hermann Keller
> has written a whole
> > book on The Well-Tempered Clavier in which he
> meticulously presents
> > what one could basically work out oneself -
> provided one does not
> > confuse Bach's opus with Carl Czerny's Art of
> Dexterity, as did the
> > Canadian pianist Glenn Gould." From the notes at
> the end of the book,
> > page 383:"It is true that Gould's interpretation
> of The Well-Tempered
> > Clavier is characterized by great transparency,
> but he does not
> > manifest a cantabile, or "singing," performance
> such as Bach demanded
> > of his pupils, one of the cornerstones of his
> teaching.  His son Carl
> > Philipp Emanuel similarly insisted on the ability
> to "sing on the
> > clavier" as the basis of musical performance
> style.  And on occasion
> > Gould treats Bach's score rather high-handedly." I
> find it interesting
> > that Mr. Eidam, who has a very low opinion of GG,
> finds it necessary
> > to mention GG at all in a book about Bach's life.
> I have not finished
> > the book.  Up to page 138, GG is the only
> recording artist who is
> > mentioned at all. Anne
>


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