[F_MINOR] Glenn Gould's own preferences

[Kate Clunies-Ross <goldbergs@BTINTERNET.COM>]

We all, no doubt, have our favourites (and not-so-favourites!) among GG's
recordings. Some may create such an emotional response in us that we would
not wish to be without them, in fact we might value them so much that  life
would seem diminished without the experienceof such music. However, we might
be less than ecstatic about other recordings...Perhaps what he was trying to
do was interesting, but we feel he failed to achieve his aims; perhaps we
simply  think  a particular interpretation didn't work or (gasp!) was not
very good!

But did Gould himself have any favourites among his lifetime's output? He
very rarely recorded anything twice; does that mean he was on the whole
satisfied with his work? An obviousexception to this was the Goldberg
Variations;  but at the time he made his second studio  recording in 1981 he
did give his reasons for doing this. It is interesting that he did not only
cite the technical advances in recording that had occurred since the
original 1955 version; he also spoke disparagingly about his own youthful
playing. And this was about what is no doubt his most famous recording!

But of course he left us plenty of other work. He lavished great care and
attention on each effort, not only on the performance itself, but on the
technical aspects of the recording process, so he evidently had very high
standards and expectations about the finished result. But were these
satisfied? He doesn't seem to have been  a vain man, so I doubt he regarded
everything he did as an unqualified success. And he did remark that he
rarerly listened to his own recordings, he simply did not find this
particularly pleasurable. But did he ever say which recordings he was
particular proud of, or regarded fondly  -   and which did _not_ satisfy
him, or in  which he failed to achieve his aims?

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