GG and Symbiosis

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Mary Jo Watts wrote:

> (...) the Bill Evans LP the GG made specific mention of is called
> _Symbiosis_ and it's on Verve CD.

I guess this goes along with the occasional thread about "what does one go
on to listen to after GG?"  One of the earlier times that _Symbiosis_ was
discussed here on f_minor, recommendations here encouraged me to go out
and buy it, being my first exposure to Evans.  I liked it so much that I
bought another Evans album...and another...and another...and now have more
than thirty of them, along with several of the transcription books to play
from, and the gorgeous new album by Thibaudet where he recreates a dozen
of the Evans pieces.  (Anybody else besides me ever listen to Evans'
"Peace Piece" and Chopin's "Berceuse" back to back?)

Earlier, one of my GG phases led to collecting everything I could find by
Otto Klemperer.  Something clicks there in the aesthetic sensibilities of
his and GG's performances (though they never worked together).  Maybe the
sense of architecture and the attention to articulative
detail...everything is so objectively clear.  I think the link may have
been GG's mention of OK in that essay where he fantasized about being able
to splice together symphonies with different sections performed by
different conductors (which I've tried with the finale of Beethoven's 7th,
fascinating).  It certainly wasn't because of the fact that OK's son
Werner was a primary actor on "Hogan's Heroes"...but Werner does have a
decent sub-career of narrating orchestral works.  ("A Survivor From
Warsaw," "Gerald McBoing Boing," etc.)

Also post-GG I've become a fan of Alfred Cortot, whose playing style was
sometimes diametrically opposite of GG's, and just as extreme and
recognizable. 

GG also induced me to collect Streisand, Schwarzkopf, and Petula Clark
albums, and dig into Schoenberg and Sibelius.  I started in on Richard
Strauss, too, but doubt that I'll ever be even half as excited about
Strauss as GG was.  But a dose of "Metamorphosen" is nice now and then. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley Lehman, bpl@umich.edu       http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/