GG: some Gouldian Schubert & Scarlatti

["Bradley Lehman" <bpl@umich.edu>]

On the recent topic of other pianists who exhibit Gouldian qualities, try
this one:

Schubert sonatas in c minor (958) and A major (959), Sony SK 46690 (Europe
only, I think), 1994.  Mark Swartzentruber, piano.

An extensive excerpt of the booklet notes is at
http://www.solorecords.co.uk/files/records.html along with ordering
information (UK, and an import address in Ohio).  Swartzentruber also has a
new Scarlatti disc and a forthcoming set of three Beethoven sonatas.

What about the Schubert disc seems particularly Gouldian?

- Extraordinary clarity of compositional structure, form, and motivic
elements

- Analytical performance and close recording perspective that both favor
clarity of inner parts and bass (a recording doesn't have to sound like a
performance in a concert hall)

- A sense of stillness and suspension of time in the slow movements

- Very little pedal

- Energetic drive in the fast movements, especially the finale of the c
minor sonata, but at the same time well-controlled and measured

- No flash for its own sake; everything that happens is structural

- The "Apollonian" as GG described it in himself

Bradley Lehman, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
Dayton VA