Re: GG and his last conducting projects

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

wehwalt@hotbot.com said:

>off the top of my head i recall that aside from his
>lugubrious (his word i believe) recording of the idle he
>had the (wonderfully fatuous) idea to conduct all the
>beethoven concerti and then go back and insert the piano
>parts.  he chose the second concerto with which to begin,
>and i believe recorded the first and second movements with
>both orchest and piano.

At last year's Glenn Gould Gathering, some excerpts of this
were played. Mostly, we heard out takes where Glenn Gould
was trying to explain his vision for the piece to the
orchestra. There were some ... miscommunications, as he was
having a hard time explaining his vision to the other
musicians. (Well, he was quite new to conducting...)

Because of their condition, the recordings could never be
released commercially. Not only is the work incomplete,
but technically... for one thing, apparently, you can
overhear the musicians talk on some portions of the
recording. (Kind of like GG's Shostakovich recording, I
guess, but worse.)

This particular work formed a part of David Young's play
"Glenn." Not the music itself, but the part it formed in
the life of the Puritan (the oldest GG figure in the play).
Also, the part where GG meets the young pianist who is to
play the piano while he conducts uses a wonderful dramatic
twist. (Ahh, those playwrights! <g>)

Anne M. Marble
amarble@sff.net