RE: GG Chopin

["Williamson, Mark" <MWilliamson@alston.com>]

Yes, this has been an ongoing item of discussion on this list and
elsewhere, particularly the criticism of the complete Mozart sonatas.  I
have to say, they are unorthodox in some ways, but I think they are
fabulous and frankly I think I know my Mozart pretty well.  The
ornamentations are certainly characteristic of the period.  They do not
sound anything like a modern-day recording by Brendel or someone like
that, but then neither does an 18th century instrument.  Likewise, Mr.
Gould's Beethoven sonatas stike me as  wonderful.  He is particularly
good at discovering the classicist in Beethoven and there is certainly a
lot of energy and drive in those recordings, which I think suits
Beethoven well.

It has never surprised me that Mr. Gould played little or no Chopin.
(Actually, I really dig Chopin notwithstanding my general lack of
interest in the Romantic composers as a whole.)  Piano technology was
fairly advanced by the time Chopin came along, and his works are really
designed to take advantage  of a really beautiful, sonorous sound and
lots of sweeping Romantic phrasing, and frankly a good deal of pedal.
That is not really how I think of Mr. Gould's playing.

Mark


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	David Dahlbom [SMTP:ddahlbom@neon.ci.lexington.ma.us]
> Sent:	Thursday, March 26, 1998 4:51 PM
> To:	f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
> Subject:	Re: GG Chopin
> 
> >The good news is that GG was quite fond of the work and he didn;t set
> out to
> >destroy is a l'appasionata or Mozart ! 
> 
> I wouldn't be so sure of that! In the index of the Glenn Gould reader
> there is only entry for the Third Chopin Sonata.  It is in an
> interview with Tim Page, here is an excerpt:
> "Tim Page: ...you have avoided recording some of the standard piano
> composers.  For instance, do you think you will ever make a Chopin
> record?
> Glenn Gould: No.  I don't think he is a very good composer.  I played
> Op. 58 when I was younger, just to see how it would feel.  It didn't
> feel very good, so I've never bothered to play any more Chopin."
> 
> And can't say in all my expierence ( which is, admittedly, not much ),
> I have never read anything totally positive about Chopin written by
> Gould.
> 
> And I wouldn't say that Gould set out to destroy Mozart or the
> "Appassionata", I would say he set out to "improve" them ;)
> 
> -David Dahlbom
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> _____
> David Dahlbom            Professional Wise Guy, Swashbuckler and
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