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Re: GG
Hi!
> Hi there!
> Are there any piano students among you who like to share their thoughts
> about Glenn Gould and his Bach-interpretations with me?
> Please let me know!
>
I am a piano student (7th course) and I listen to many Gould's
recordings.
Forgetting speak about HIP, or other topics that people like, I am
going to answer your original message.
I think I am at a balanced or intermediate position about Gould
playing.
I think it's obvious that from a scholarship or from a
conservatory-teacher point of view, one must compeltely avoid Gould.
But I think that these are too conservative positions, and to
evolve it is necessary to take different positions ("Only fool or
unmature people discover new things").
About Gould I like his cristal clear voice independence. One can listen
and follow each voice without score in front. Each voice is well
explained. Obviously his general point of view about Bach music is far
from the rest, but it is good in its own. He has a conception about Bach
music, and his basic ideas are right and coherent. He apply this ideas
and plays. Perhaps he is a "unbalanced mind", but "from mad to genius
there is only a step". He is a man with revolutionary conceptions. He
is a genius in his own world, because his world and his conceptions are
right. Using this basic ideas he has built a personal world. One can
like or dislike, but everybody has to recognize that in spite of his
annoying characteristics, he is great. At the oposite of main people
ideas, I think he has some really sensitive and romantic moments even
playing Bach. He has some fugues and movements from his Partitas
recording which are impossible to play better.
I like his separated quavers, his voices independence, his articulations
and his strict conception of score.
About the "Humming topic", I cannot understand people who tells that
they feel not comfortable with humming. If everybody is able to
"forget" the criks and cracks from old LP's, or the outside building noise,
or the usual noise of tapes (partially eliminated by Dolby system), why
are you not able to "forget" Gould's humming?
Even more, humming is one of the greatest things Gould gave to us.
With humming one can listen what is the player thought, what is the
voice he is paying attention, and what is his conception of piece.
On the other hand I think that Gould fails in some points. The main is
the tempo. Sometimes it is so fast that it is impossible to understand
what he is playing. He want to show that he is a great pianist, and it
is not good. The separated semiquavers (as somebody calls "typewriter
sound") are the main characeristic to identify a Gould performance. In
some moments it is good, but in others it is bad, very bad. Some of his
interpretations are aggressive and stiff. Pieces which are full of
sense and feeling are played in a fast and hard way.
Summarizing: Gould is a great genius, who built a own world from a very
solid basic conception about Bach music. Gould is not a genius,
because sometimes his reading of some pieces are completely oposite to
original composer conception, and overall, his F1-fast tempo.
Xavier
=================================================================
Xavier Otazu-Porter
Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia
Facultat de Fisica
Universitat de Barcelona
Avgda. Diagonal 647
08028 Barcelona
SPAIN
xavier@fajnm1.am.ub.es
http://www.am.ub.es/~jorge/xavier/xavier.html
=================================================================
- References:
- GG
- From: "T W" <WaverijnConcerts@hetnet.nl>