Contrarianism

[Allan MacLeod <armacleod@SK.SYMPATICO.CA>]

Let's face it--Gould wanted to shock.  He refuses to  play Chopin, he
attacks what most of us regard as masterpieces by Mozart, he rejects all
the romantics except Mendelssohn, he praises Beethoven's Moonlight
Sonata, he idolizes Stokowski.  Essentially, Gould's only sincere
opinions concerned Bach, Schoenberg, Gibbons and Byrd.  He  attacked all
the popular romantics while praising those least acceptable to baroque
and classical lovers--that is, he praised to extraordinary degrees
Wagner and Strauss.  His recordings of Haydn probably had more to do
with Haydn's obscurity (re the keyboard) then any real admiration for
him.   He is having us on and good for him.  It forces us to think why
it is we love late Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.  Take Gould with a very
large grain of salt--the man who early in his life conducted Maureen
Forrester in an excerpt from Mahler's Resurrection Symphony turned
skeptical of Mahler after Bernstein made him the definitive composer of
the twentieth century.  If Gould had lived, and for his sense of humour
alone would that he had, how would he have coped with the Strauss
canonization?