RE: What "Unpopular" Glenn Gould Piece Do You Love?

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

Some of GG's Beeethoven Sonata recordings are virtually unlistenable (e.g.
Appassionata, and Op. 31 series; op. 10. no.3 [or maybe it's no. 1]played at
crazily breakneck pace ). However, there are a few choice nuggets worth
seeking out: Op. 14, No. 2 is charming and songful; Pathetique is demonic
and driven; Hammerclavier is played at an unusually slow tempo, but I find
that this lends majesty, and works well for all but the Third Mvt; Pastoral
Sonata (Op. 28)is played gently and lyrically (except last mvt., where the
phrasing is idiosyncratic to the point of distortion). This is a late
recording -- I think '79 -- and has some of the mellow autumnal quality of
other GG recordings of that period.

Re: GG's memory -- I recall from K. Bazzana's book that GG usually had
completely memorized a piece from reading the score before he started
playing it in the keyboard; thus, unlike most pianists, he relied on
cognitive rather than muscle memory. This is why some of his fingering
patterns are unorthodox, since he was playing from memory from the outset,
rather than working out the piece section by section.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anne M. Marble [mailto:amarble@abs.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 12:05 AM
To: f_minor mailing list
Subject: GG: What "Unpopular" Glenn Gould Piece Do You Love?


There are a lot of Glenn Gould pieces that are "unpopular" even among his
fans. For example, his Mozart and some of his controversial Beethoven
recordings.

Yet I find myself liking some of these pieces. A lot. For example, I love
GG's recording of Mozart's Sonata Number 11. (My mother likes to crank that
one up in the car stereo. :-> ) Also, when the mood is right, I love his
organ recordings of the first part of Art of the Fugue. (I listened to
those while editing some technical documents tonight.) I adore his Brahms,
which not everybody likes. I also love his recordings of the Haydyn sonatas
and English Suites -- while they're not exactly among "unpopular"
recordings, they are certainly controversial.

So what "unpopular" (translation: controversial) GG recordings to you like?

------
Anne M. Marble