Re: GG Two piano pieces

["Anne Smith" <smithqa@nexicom.net>]

A. Thayer wrote:


>I recently got the GG composer CD on Sony and having previously worked on
>the 1st of the 2 piano pieces I was quite surprised at what I heard.
what I find surprising is that the
>pieces sound generally rather unprepared. There are a number of places
where
>the rhythm is wrong (I'm not talking about excessive rubato:- it is wrong)

I agree with you.  In places the rhythm is just wrong.

>and there seem to be a number of misread notes (seeing as the pieces are
>serial this is surely quite unforgivable). Now, I don't know how different
>the original manuscripts are to the published version

In my copy (Schott) There is a preface by Carl Morey from the Institute for
Canadian Music.  He says " Gould frequently neglected to cancel accidentals
in a bar ............Because the application of the pitch series is so
regular, it is possible in almost every case of uncertainty .. to determine
the accurate pitch from its position in the series."

Perhaps E. Naoumoff was playing from the original manuscript and not the
published version.

 (
>(Historically the pieces are from a time where Gould was heavily into
>serialism and it seems almost certain that any textual inconsistencies with
>the series are errors, rather than intentional expressive deviations).

Carl Morey expressed the same idea.

> I may be wrong on this:- perhaps the performance is better than I
>imagine and the published score is actually at fault,

I agree with you.

Anne
P.S.  I like the 5 Short Pieces better than the 2.