Re: Glenn Gould in "The True Life of J.S. Bach"

[Allan MacLeod <armacleod@SK.SYMPATICO.CA>]

I hope that no one has misunderstood my reference to Gould's dry
acoustic.  I meant to suggest that he chose to play the piano and have
it recorded in such a way as to deny its richness, resonance and body.
Listening to music is at least partially a sensual experience and Gould
did everything to deny that part of the musical experience to us.  His
appeal was very much to the intellect.  This has its place, but no one
should ever have only Gould's Mozart or Beethoven in their collection.
What do people mean by sentimentality?  I did not use the term,
althought I referred to feeling.  To me sentimentality refers to a
wallowing in feeling, where feeling is everything.  But to avoid
sentimentality is not the same as playing without feeling.
Sentimentality would be to wring every last emotional stop out of
Hamlet's solioquies; feeling would be to read it as if it meant
something.  Reading without feeling would be to get all the syllables
and stresses right, but to give no emphases so as to make it clear what
Hamlet's state of mind was.  To me Gould is like that last type--Bach
has no message other than the notes and they can be played however your
intellectual fancy inclines you.
I used to think Bach was all about academic exercises and complex
structures until I listened to Harnoncourt's recordings of the cantatas
which were an emotional and spiritual epiphany for me.  Early
Harnoncourt is not known for his sentimentality, but the feeling in his
performances blows Gould away.
I will treasure the 1982 Goldbergs, the Brahms including the concerto
with Bernstein, the Byrd and Gibbons.  For the rest I will listen to
them as an intellectual experience  which is no insignificant
achievement.  Gould's longevity, I would suggest, lies  in the
intellectual substructure of his performances which is why he will last,
for the more "singing" performances are almost a dime a dozen.  Each
generation will produce its Perahia's, but Gould's intellect is for the
ages.  But I cannot live on Gould alone, even for Bach.
        Allan