Re: Gould/Chopin

[john grant <dohertygrant@sympatico.ca>]

My God, Anne, I'm amazed he played ANY Chopin!   But, then, his Brahms
Intermezzi show he could be quite the romantic.
John
WTC 1 part 2:
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/190/the_welltempered_clavier_bk_1_.html
WTC 1 part 1:
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/244/bach_welltempered_clavier_bk_1.html

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Smith" <smithqa@NEXICOM.NET>
To: <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: Gould/Chopin


> This is from an interview on CBC Radio with Vincent Tovell.
>
> Tovell:  You don't find yourself wanting to play Chopin, for instance?
>
> GG:    No. No, I don't.  I play it in a weak moment - maybe once a year or
> twice a year for myself.  But it doesn't convince. me.
>
> GG went on to admit that Chopin certainly understood the piano.  He said
he
> was an unparalleled setter of moods and as a miniaturist he was superb.
He
> felt Chopin failed "in the bigger things of music, in the real
> organizational attempts, he failed almost altogether."
>
> Remember, GG thought of himself as a musician not a pianist.  The fact
that
> Chopin was the pianist's composer did not impress Glenn Gould.
> Like the rest of us, GG had to learn Chopin when he was a student.  From
> what I have read, it sounds as though he had his fill of it then.  He
> mentioned playing Romantic music for student recitals.
>
> Anne
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: f h <boyboy_8@YAHOO.COM>
> To: <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 12:52 PM
> Subject: Gould/Chopin
>
>
> > I have long felt curious about his almost Chopin-less
> > output.  I am really only going to guess here, having
> > not read what Gould said in print or interviews about
> > his opinion.  I have a somewhat love/disinterest in
> > Chopin and always have.  As a romantic poet of the
> > piano, Chopin has expressed musical ideas which, at
> > the best, are superb.  At his worst, he sounds like a
> > broken record.  It's not so much that you can hear
> > those chords coming like the proverbial train around
> > the mountain, or you can see Chopin bringing his
> > pieces to a conclusion as if he was strapped with
> > crazy glue into the composers seat, fixed and fixated
> > with the forms he had either created or developed.  I
> > think that Chopin suffers worse than say, Schubert,
> > for a composer who had an opportunity to express
> > himself from a wider pallet and lost track of this
> > ambition and instead found himself almost sounding
> > like a caraciture of himself.  I know that this is a
> > bit harsh, but after a few hours of listening to many
> > Chopin pieces in a row, you will get a gist of what
> > I'm getting at.  Where other composers, especially
> > Beethoven, searched for ever new forms and
> > complexities to elaborate on, Chopin was quite happy
> > showing you how many different ways that a heart could
> > be worn on one's sleeve.  Fine enough but there is
> > much more to be said in music.  He abandoned symphonic
> > and chamber music expressions where he most certainly
> > had the musical mind to explore these and other forms.
> >  All in all, perhaps, Gould felt a bit let down or
> > even bored with Chopin, because from an intellectual
> > point of view, or better put, from a contrapuntalists
> > point of view, Gould might have felt that there was
> > very little there in Chopin that needed exploring.  As
> > I say, it's just speculation on my part.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Fred
> >
> >
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