Re: GG -- like the rest of us?

[Ed Price <edp@panix.com>]

>Did Gould's technical abilities stop 'improving' at some age, or did he 
>continue to extend them throughout his life? Perhaps -- perish the 
>thought -- middle age cramped his style and prevented him from repeating 
>the feats of his 20s and 30s; that is, after GG passed some climactic 
>point his skills started deteriorating with increasing age.

in my opinion: absolutely not!  maybe if he had lived longer his ability to
physically play the piano would have deteriorated (of course he supposedly
didn't even intend to continue playing the piano, at least professionally,
much beyond the point at which he died anyway).  but i think that his
technique in later recordings is clearly superior to his earlier ones.
there are the two goldberg variations recordings to compare, the second of
which could hardly offer compelling evidence for technical deterioration!
i think practically everything he rerecorded later in life surpassed
earlier versions; as another example, consider the d major partita as
recorded in 1962/63 compared to the one on "The Question of Instrument"
(1980 or so i would assume).  he was always extremely agile but i think
later he developed even greater precision and power.