[F_MINOR] Glenn Gould and David Bar-Illan

[Nessie Russell <nessierussell@YAHOO.CA>]

I received the following this morning from the
Great-Pianist list.  Seems Glenn Gould was friends
with David Bar-Illan.

> > Some excerpts from the "NEWS.telegraph.co.uk",
> ll/7/03:
> >  [I never knew he was such big friends with Gould]
> >
> > "David Bar-Illan, who died on Tuesday aged 73, was
> the executive
> > editor of the Israeli English-language daily, the
> Jerusalem Post,
> > before becoming the spokesman for the Israeli
> government under
> > Benjamin Netanyahu.
> >
> > But for most of his life Bar-Illan was a
> professional pianist who
> > appeared as a soloist with many of the world's
> major orchestras,
> > notably the New York Philharmonic and the
> Baltimore Symphony.
> >
> > His way of practising was intriguing, and the
> result of an unpleasant
> > experience. Once, preparing for a concert in
> Buenos Aires, he was
> > rudely interrupted by a woman in the flat below.
> Although it was
> > daytime, she demanded that he stop playing at once
> and threatened to
> > call the police. So, as Bar-Illan put it in a
> later interview:
> >
> > "Necessity being the mother of invention, I tried
> to practise as
> > quietly as possible. I noticed that if I depressed
> the keys very,
> > very slowly, there would be no sound at all. After
> that day I
> > continued to practise in this way. . . of course,
> on tour this has
> > become one of the blessings of my existence.
> >
> > "I can practise on any bloody keyboard that is
> available. So many
> > pianists say they can't practise because the piano
> is not good enough
> > and to me that's nonsense."
> >
> > Bar-Illan was a close friend of the Canadian
> pianist Glenn Gould. "He
> > once called me," Bar-Illan recalled, "and said:
> 'David, I'm recording
> > the Moonlight Sonata this afternoon. Should I play
> it slow or fast?'
> > And since I thought the Moonlight is usually
> played too slowly I
> > said, 'Please play it fast'. He said 'Good', and
> hung up."
> >
> > The two were so close that Gould even allowed
> Bar-Illan to play on
> > his favourite piano. Bar-Illan later recalled how
> he played a
> > virtuoso piece on the Gould piano and "as I raised
> my hand high, he
> > thought I was about to come down hard on the
> instrument. He
> > said, 'Oh, no, no! Don't, don't! Wait!!!' "
> >
> > Gould hated concerts, but he did attend a few of
> Bar-Illan's,
> > choosing to hide backstage as a clandestine
> observer. "Afterwards,"
> > Bar-Illan remembered, "I'd look at my scores and
> they'd be covered
> > with all sorts of amusing cracks he'd made about
> what I did with the
> > pieces I played." The premature death of Gould in
> 1982
> > was "shattering" for David Bar-Illan.
> >
> > David Bar-Illan, whose Hebrew name was David
> Yaakov Ben Zeela, was
> > born on February 7 1930 at Haifa, Palestine, then
> under the British
> > Mandate. He received his musical training at the
> Haifa Music
> > Institute and at 16 was already a soloist with the
> Palestine
> > Broadcasting Service Orchestra."


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