RE: [F_minor] something Gould would like: Gibbons on piano

["Houpt, Fred" <fred.houpt@rbc.com>]

Hi Paul.   You wonder what attracted Gibbons to Gould? You could just as
well ask why he was so very attracted to dissonant modern music?  Who
knows?  Gibbons, for me, sounds very organized and tuneful, at a very
early stage of counterpoint.  The beauty that Gould reveals is as usual
at the textural level.  While the tunes are quaint to our ears now, they
are lovely in their own way.   They don't offend the ear like Gesualdo
(one of my favorites) with his crashing dissonance.  Gibbons sounds like
courtly music which of course it was.  In the end, who can understand
why Glenn liked anything?  It is a mystery we just accept.  

I was listening to some Beethoven sonatas on my IMAC and I must say that
Glenn just ripped through some of them at such a ridiculous speed that I
just sat there, shook my head and said, no Glenn, that's just absurd.
But, that is why it is called an interpretation.  (And just when I
thought he had shredded the essence of a fast movement, he totally
transformed the air with celestial calm in the slower movements; it was
like your brain waves were completely set into a different and pleasant
gear....amazing).

I recently bought at least 3 historic recordings of the 3 or 4 most
recorded Beethoven sonatas; Appassionata, Waldstein, Moonlight,
Pathetique, Les Adieux...etc.  I got: Walter Gieseking, Serkin,
Rubinstein.  Each plays these chestnuts so totally differently and they
say so many different things.  There are surprises in each.  Who is to
say that anyone ever plays these pieces in a perfect way?  For me it is
a foolish enterprise to find a perfect interpretation.  We pick and
choose our favorites by what we feel or think and that's just fine.

All the best to everyone.  I long for this blasted winter to end...way
too much snow already....

Fred Houpt
Toronto

[snip]
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