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Re: GG & Perahia



From: Fred Stubbings <velfred@EARTHLINK.NET>
Reply-To: velfred@earthlink.net
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: GG & Perahia
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 12:34:29 -0700

Then some of you started your comparisons so I got out my GG recording >of
the Bach Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 5. and played the GG >and
Perahia one right after the other.  What a difference there is in >the
piano.  Perahia just doesn't show the same enthusiasm for the >piano in
this recording that GG does in his.  GG sounds more "up >front".  Perahia
almost sounds like he is in the background. It seems >to me that Perahia is
putting more enthusiasm into his conducting.  >Like I said, it is very
enjoyable.

Good grief! You call Gould's style "enthusiastic"? IMHO it sounds more like an attack on the music! You are certainly entitled to your opinion but personally, I can't stand the Gould recordings of the keyboard concertos. Whenever I try to listen to them I am turned off at once by the harsh, aggressive, and above all percussive nature of his playing. It sounds like he's trying to hammer out the notes rather than connect to the music. "Up front" is the understatement of the year! And I wouldn't consider it a compliment... Gould's recording of the keyboard concertos is sort of a distillation of everything I dislike about Gould's Bach, all put into one recording. With other pieces, like the Goldbergs/Partitas/Toccatas, I am able to get past the things I hate in order to appreciate the things I love about Gould's Bach (of which there are many, don't get me wrong.) But in my opinion the keyboard concertos are Gould at his worst. The music sounds incredibly harsh, and the piano sounds like it's trying to dominate the orchestra by sheer force of will. Gould plays practically EVERYTHING with that annoying percussive staccato, and it sounds like he's trying to make a piano sound like a harpsichord for reasons that I cannot understand (the harpsichord was never a big success as a solo instrument in a concerto, for a very good reason!) In contrast, when Perahia plays, he's working WITH the orchestra, not against them. The melodic lines sound like he's singing them. And as for "enthusiasm," how about the first movement of the A major concerto?

Cristalle



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