GG: Catching up

[Arin Murphy <la_murph@alcor.concordia.ca>]

I just lost a whole message to you all... I'm crushed. It was a wonderful
chatty message too, just what we all needed. Now I'll have to condense and
it just won't be the same. Sigh.

Hello F_Minors! I've been pretty quiet for a while - end of semester
graduate panic, don't you know, and then a well-deserved trip home for R&R
which didn't really happen but it was good anyway. And it seems that I
missed quite a bit. Well done, everyone. Nicely handled.

And on to more cheerful and pertinent stuff.

Penguin Guides, hmm? As a rule I don't consult guides, MOF, the only time
I did was when I was trying to decide which recording of Mozart's Die
Entfuhrung aus dem Serail to buy. I ended up getting GG's WTC 1 instead
because I couldn't come to a decision. I pick up Classical CD every once
in a while, but that's for kicks, not research. Quite honestly, I am
astonished at how often I fall totally in love with whatever the music
shop happens to be playing and absolutely must own it. I discover great
stuff that way that I otherwise never would have known - Bach's Magnificat
and his Grand Motets found their way into my collection that way. (Funny,
I never hear them playing Gould... hmm.) Price always is a factor as well. 
I'm rather fond of the Naxos recordings - three cheers for the tumble of
the Iron Curtain which released so many terrific recordings into the
international market! They're cheap, and I've only met one or two I didn't
like. I can also buy six at a time instead of two regularly priced CDs; I
feel more daring about the music I try because if I should decide I don't
like it, I haven't invested a ton of money that would have been better
spent going towards food or another GG CD.  Rumour has it the Penguin
Guide is enamoured of Naxos; I wouldn't know. I also hear snips of things
on the radio (gotta love CBC first thing in the morning... I have to keep
a pad an pencil next to my bed so that when my clock radio goes off I can
make a note of whatever wonderful piece they're playing - often GG!) or I
read treatises in string performance journals (that's how I met the Brahms
String Sextets - pure, rich, smooth, darkly dramatic... mmm!). Or I see
something on the new releases shelves and say what the heck. I really wish
I had more money so I could experiment more, though.

Next thread: Bach. Oh, *yes*! While I work, and play, and eat, and
sleep... sorry. Seriously though, I find it the best music to put on if I
have to concentrate on something else. I find it very ordered - does that
make sense? - and I think it might put my mind in order too. First thing
in the morning - absolutely. Very pure, very simple, and yet not. Neat
cello anecdote: Pablo Casals used to play a bit of Bach on his cello first
thing every day. He said it sanctified the house. I'll drink to that; I
put the Magnificat on first thing most Sunday mornings. It's just right. 
And GG's Goldbergs are the CDs I put on if I can't think of anything else
- which recording? Ah, it's pure luck; they're filed side by side and look
identical if I'm not paying attention to the words on the spine, or if I'm
not wearing my glasses (which I should do more, but that's neither here
nor there.). Not that I never listen to them otherwise... oh, never mind. 

I realised the other day to my immense surprise that I do something very
similar to GG when I practice. I often leave whatever CD I was listening
to playing when I sit down to practice cello. My teacher nearly flipped
when I told her. (`You're *what*? Stop it! You'll ruin your ear! How can
you concentrate?' etc.) But in an odd way it helps me concentrate. Now,
I'll be the first to admit that it's music and not a vacuum cleaner (I'm
vaguely, charmingly eccentric, not a musical genius (not that the two are
mutually exclusive:)), but it's the same principle. (Interesting Note: I
cannot concentrate on practicing if Bach is on. Hmm.) 

I'll be picking up the Ostwald book too, because like others of you I'm
willing to read anything about Gould. I'll read it and take what I want
from it, and disagree or dismiss the rest, the same thing I do with
everything I read. We really won't know until we get the thing in our
hands and crack it open, will we?

I was trotting up the stairs in my favourite music shop downtown the other
week when I came face to face with a life-sized cardboard standup of GG,
cloth cap in hand, longcoat hanging loosly on his frame. I stumbled to a
stop, choked, in a split second ran wildly through all the trite
introductions I knew (I'm not kidding), realised it was a standup,
blushed, and stood there shifting my weight from foot to foot, not wanting
to look at him but not wanting to leave. It was quite awkward, and I had
the hardest time leaving that landing. I sort of backed up to the stairs
and felt around for the first one. You people must be the only ones who
might even remotely understand this. I am very thankful no one else came
up or down those stairs while I was stuck on that landing. Sure, it would
have been embarrassing, but it also would have broken the spell. 

While I was in Oakville I slipped into a music shop (contrary to popular
belief, I do not spend excessive amounts of time in them... justifiable
amounts, yes) and saw a poster that advertised Pure Gould. Sony's really
pushing this, aren't they? And, suckers that we are, a captive audience
and market... sigh. Right into their hands.

I heard Henry Litolff's piano concertos for the first time last weekend. 
Pity Gould scorned Romantic music more often than not; I'd have loved to
hear his versions. Try them if you like that sort of thing, especially
nos. 2 and 4. Bash me if you don't like them; I have wide shoulders. 

To reiterate the strong bond-like feeling I got from this week's
messages, I think you're all grand, and that it's wonderful to have such a
varied group of friends to natter away with over such a broad range of
topics. And I'm glad to be back.

So there.



Arin Murphy
Student, Savoyard,
Bookseller, Cellist-By-Night

	--------------

"It really isn't difficult if you give your whole mind to it."
				-Lady Angela, Act 1
				   Gilbert & Sullivan's `Patience'