Chromatic Fantasia - Schnabel / Gould ... Serkin

["Peyret, Aymeric" <Peyret.Aymeric@EC-LILLE.FR>]

Hello !

I know that Gould did not like at all the Chromatic Fantasy (and thus did
not record the Chromatic Fugue at all). But he also plays very well some
works he did not like (the Italian Concerto for example)... And I compared
it with Schnabel because I also have the Andreas Staier version (on a
harpsichord) which is completely different. When I listened to Schnabel, it
remembered me Gould´s recording and not Staier´s. Gould and Schnabel play
this works as if it were written for an orchestra.
As for the "problem" with the left hand : I think that Gould´s way of
playing it is help us to hear the contrapuntal theme (at the beginning of
the Fantasy, where the chords are based on the bass note and are - this is
my personnal opinion - only here in order to get the harmonical
progression). But of course this is not a conventional way of playing this
work at all..

APP

PS : I also like Casals and Serkin a lot, and I will try to listen to the
5th Brandenburg Concerto. Serkin had also a "hard touch" on his piano, and I
think a good comparison between Serkin and Gould could be the Burleske by
Strauss (Serkin´s recording is with Ormandy -  I think - but I cannot
remember with whom did Gould record it)

-----Original Message-----
From: Antonio Sidoti tel. +39+0461 88 1525
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Sent: 12.02.2002 11:55
Subject: Re: F_MINOR Digest - 8 Feb 2002 to 11 Feb 2002 (#2002-25)

On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Vincent Vo wrote:

> This is in regards to APP...
>
> I've listened to both.. for myself personally, I thought Gould's
Chromatic
> Fantasy was one of the worst, as the left hand staccatto playing
really
> distracted the whole recording.

Hi,
I remember Gould telling in an interview (probably to Bruno Montsaingeon
while video-recording the Chromatic Fantasy) that the Chromatic Fantasy
was one of the Bach's worst works!

It is hard to play at Gould's level something that is considered awful
also for Gould himself!

Ciao,
Antonio



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                "Il meglio e` nemico del buono"