Re: Mozart

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>Hear, hear! I can't claim any knowledge of musical practice, but I do know
>when
>a performance elucidates the music, and I certainly appreciate a performance
>that keeps me coming back for more (from which I continue to learn) rather
>than
>one which is considered academically "correct" but leaves my heart cold and my
>mind bored. I have always loved Gould's Mozart Sonatas, and I must admit I
>take
>a perverse delight in the distaste for them expressed by the narrow-minded and
>benighted.
>
>Russell
>
>"Williamson, Mark" wrote:
>
>> As I have previously confessed to this list before, I do not understand what
>> all the fuss about the Mozart sonatas is.  I consider myself (rightly or
>> wrongly) to be fairly knowledgeable about Mozart performance practice and
>> enjoy the Gould recordings immensely.  They seem to me to be solidly in line
>> with 18th-century performance practice principles.  Perhaps there's
>> something wrong with me.
>>
>> Mark
>



Sorry guys, no matter how much I couldn't live without GG's JSB and
Schoenberg, Hindemith and late Haydn/early Beethoven etc., I must say that
his Mozart was really misunderstood or at least, obviously uneven.

The less mature works are anybody's guess, but I don't 'appreciate' the
following:   <grin>

K545 is over all -much too fast.  It's not a virtuoso pot boiler, it's a
subtle teaching piece.

K570 is played as if Gould wrote it himself!  Is this good?  Not for a
composer of the eighteenth century played by a genius from the twentieth
century!  Talk about overkill!  It's out of whack.  It just isn't done!
<grin>

K576 likewise -is very interesting, but it's not at all Mozartean!

K332 and K333 are quite fast, why?  Is it blatant disdain?

K457's first mvmnt is marvelous, I wish that I could play it with such
control, precision and EXPRESSION!  But, if it's an embryonic romantic
piece, why does GG hold back so much?  And then, in its third movement,
Glenn makes it sound like a movement from our century!  Is this good?  I
think it's 'over the top', which is never good...

BTW, I'm not saying that Glenn could help it...  He had too much personal
integrity to play what he considered mere teaching pieces, by rote!!  He
was an intrepid explorer!

The better I can play, through the years, the better I can understand his
contractual difficulty during this time.

Jerry