GG RE: Sinfonies by Gould

["Baldwin, Daniel" <baldwin@baermarks.com>]

I am a new member of f-minor. I can best describe myself as a self-educated
musical amateur; my formal musical training consists of 3 years of piano
lessons at ages 9-11 (25 years ago), while my informal self-training
consists of lots of listening and reading. I "discovered" GG about 2 years
ago , and I find his performances to be touchstones for what I am sure are
the same reasons shared by many of you. 

As to the inquiry by BONG re: GG's performances of the Sinfonias, and
whether they are misinterpretations of Bach -- I recall (I think from Kevin
Bazzana's book)that tempo was the last (and least important) element
considered by GG in his performance of a work; of all the disparities
between his different performances of the same work, the most pronounced is
in the element of tempo, and I think this points to its role as an
incidental factor in his hierarchy of aesthetic values. A couple of examples
from among many are the "fast" v. "slow" tempi in the aria and certain of
the variations in the Goldbergs, as between the '55 and '81 performances,
and the tempo in his recording of the E major fugue from Bk 2 of the WTC, as
included in the compilation of the entire set recorded in the late '60s, and
in a late '50s recording (included with the SONY Classical edition of the
'55 Goldbergs), which is at approx 1/2 the speed of the later performance.

I think GG's attitude to tempo is consistent with his general attitude
toward performance -- i.e., that he didn't think it was worthwhile to play a
piece unless you had something new to bring to the interpretation. Thus,
re-interpretations -- of a given work, and of his earlier interpretations of
the same work -- were integral to his approach. So, although I can't recall
offhand the performance of Sinfonia no. 15 to which Bong refers, I wouldn't
be surprised if the tempo is radically different from what is considered the
norm. Whether this particular deviation is so extreme as to be considered a
misinterpretation rather than a reinterpretation (as, for example, some
people view GG's recordings of the Mozart sonatas) is beyond my capacity to
address (although I am sure there are other f-minors who can). However, I
assume that BONG (as a GG fan) usually finds himself invigorated (rather
than put off) by GG's (re)inventive approach.



-----Original Message-----
From: BONG [mailto:bong@iti.lt]
Sent: Sunday, October 03, 1999 2:47 PM
To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
Subject: Sinfonies by Gould


I would appreciate your comments on Gouldian performance of Bach's sinfonies
for Klavier. They are so wonderful, yet nr. 15 is performed a bit too fast
in some places. Don't you think Gould misinterpreted Bach in this case?
Thank you.

Juozas Rimas, Lithuania.