GG: Discovering modern music

[David Daniel <DanielFamily@worldnet.att.net>]

Hello,

When Mary Jo asked what had originally sparked our interest in atonal music,
I thought of a something I had read in the liner notes for the GG edition 
Hindemith Three Piano Sonatas about Gould's own introduction into 20th c.
music.  

        "...there was his old 'love':  after all, as he later reacalled, 
         it had been Hindemith's symphony Mathis der Maler (Mathis the 
         Painter) that levelled the way for the fifeen-year-old's appreciation
         of contemporary music."

I had never heard this before.  There is a specific reference to the Mathis
der Maler symphony in the essay, "Hindemith:  Will His Time Come? Again?"

        "To be sure, a handful of his [Hindemith's] works hold their place 
         in the repetoire--the Symphonic Metamorphoses on a Theme by Weber, 
         the Concert Music for brass and strings, and above all,  the 
         magnificent triptych drawn from his opera Mathis der Maler."

I have always held the piece as one of my favourite for orchestra, but it 
is interesting to hear that it was Hindemith who first introduced him 
to contemporary music.  Hindemith is far from being atonal, 12 tone, 
avant-garde, etc., but I wonder if Gould developed his infatuation with
Schoenberg by first going through Hindemith. 

Does anyone know where it was that GG admitted Hindemith had paved the way?  

David