New list member

["Greg D'Agostino" <Laozi@home.com>]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself as I'm a fairly new list member who
has mainly been lurking and enjoying the conversations.

I came to Bach and Glenn Gould in a rather roundabout way as for many
years I was a professional rock musician playing mainly the electric
guitar and synthesizer, and had no interest in classical music (unless
you can count the rock/classical fusion of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart
Mother).

My first exposure came when I read Hofstadter's "GEB: An Eternal Golden
Braid" and saw how he was able to weave Bach's music into other
disciplines that I was interested in. I thought I'd give Bach a try and
picked up a recording of the Musical Offering by the Leipziger Bach
Collegium. Suffice it to say, I wasn't ready at the time to comprehend
the music and it gathered dust on my shelf.

And then while reading "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", I was
intrigued by the mention of Lecter only listening to the GG version of
the Goldberg Variations because only Gould had the dexterity to pull off
the virtuosic counterpoint. I then decided to give Bach another try and
by chance picked up the '57 version of the Variations.

Well, the time must have been ripe because I fell in love the music of
Bach and especially Mr. Gould's interpretations. I've even grown to love
the Musical Offering and the above disk has now gone into primary
rotation on my CD player.

Which brings me to today and wanting to let the list know that I've
recently finished my own recording of the Goldberg Variations as an
homage to Mr. Gould, as it is based on the tempo structure of his '57
recording. I find these tempi to be the perfect compromise between the
frenetic rush of the '55 and the artificiality of the '81. I've just put
up a page of a few MP3 samples and if anyone cares to take a listen and
give some feedback they're at:

http://www.members.home.net/laozi/gold.htm


Ciao,

Greg D'Agostino
Laozi@home.com