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Re: GG and Symbiosis



 Bradley P Lehman wrote:

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

  >(Anybody else besides me ever listen to Evans'
  >"Peace Piece" and Chopin's "Berceuse" back to back?)

Well, not back to back -- but... a few years ago I used to listen to
Peace Piece every single night before bed --- this went on for about a
year.

I have GG playing only Bach really, and I'm wondering if anyone would be
kind enough to recommend which of his Mozart to start with and why.

Regards,

Harold

  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/