Gould on Mendelssohn

[Allan MacLeod <allan.macleod@usask.ca>]

Hello:
    In Jonathan Cott's interview with Gould published as Conversations
with Glenn Gould, Gould says the following:
GG:  --But I do find it difficult to muster any enthusiasm for the early
Romantics.  Schumann, for example, is a composer with whom I have very
little patience, though Mendelssohn, on the other hand, especially when
he's not writing for the piano, appeals to me enormously.
JC:--But then, Mendelssohn was probably the most disciplined and
classically oriented of the early Romantics.
GG:-Exactly. (p.66)

Later, in his discussion of Mussorgsky's comment on Mendelssohnm itself
a part of his Beatles discussion, he says:  "I think his observation
that Mendelssohn was a strait-laced man who liked nice, tidy sixteen-bar
paragraphs was quite correct.  What we forget to notice was that
Mendelssohn was inventive on another level altogether.  In order to
comprehend his invention, one has to first accept the placidity that is
the most abubdant feature of his music.  Having accepted that,
Mendelssohn can then surprise you by the gentlest movement; he needs
only the tiniest change, as they say in the jazz field, to make his
effect felt.  Whereas in the case of Mussorgsky, he has to hit you over
the head with a forte-piano contrast, or a quasi-modal moment or
something--I happen to like Mussorgsky, by the way, I really do"
    Allan MacLeod