RE: tempo

[Roy Johansen <rjohanse@mail.tds.net>]

Eric wrote:
I wonder if anyone else has experienced such a radical change in a GG 
recording whereby the halving of tempo has produced a masterpiece not 
quite out of nothing but out of a piece that had not previously stood 
out above the rest.

The first movement of the cantata "Widerstehe doch der Suende" comes to mind. You can't quite rob it of its qualities no matter how you perform it (which is probably why it survives Gould's "harpsipiano" treatment in the first place), and I have always liked this piece a LOT, but it _does_ need a slower tempo, a la Gould's, (and a vibratoless soloist, a la Oberlin (although I personally would have preferred a female singer (Streisand? ;-) ),) to make it yield the sheer beauty it does in Gould's recording.

Roy