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Re: GG: At Home etc
On Fri, 14 Feb 1997, eric.coates@which.net wrote:
> Regarding your "half baked" theory about GG's vocalising, it sounds
> pretty good to me. I wonder, though, whether Alberto Guerrero had any
> effect in this. (Latin, Southern, presumably more ebullient and
> emotionally expressive than his pupil. For all I know, though, he was
> from Tierra del Fuego which is pretty "Northern" in an upside down sort
> of way!)
> Regards Eric
>
About Guerrero:
One interesting thing about Guerrero and Gould's
relationship after their parting was that Guerrero refused to see Glenn
play live. He was delighted with Glenn's incredible success, but strongly
disapproved of Gould's "platform antics" as he called them. He also
suggested to Gould that he try to stop vocalising, but relented. In John
Beckwith's essay "Shattering a Few Myths", he notes that "(Guerrero)
wanted to attend Gould's triumphant Massey Hall concert in Toronto in
1956, but decided he couldn't because the sight of those mannerisms would
upset him."
As for Guerrero's "Latinness" being a factor, that stereotype doesn't
seem to hold up too well in modern pianists. Claudio Arrau, Maria Joao
Peres, and Alicia de LaRoccha (not Latin, but Southern) all sat or still
sit very quietly at the keyboard. Guerrero also didn't exactly play
ebullient music. His main work, according to Beckwith, a fellow student
of Guerrero's, was with Bach, and he was also very sympathetic to the
moderns (DeBussy, Ravel, Berg, introduced Gould to Schonberg, who he hated
at first), though he did perform many of the Romantics.
My own beliefs about Gould's vocalising aren't terribly radical. I
just think that it became a part of his playing because his mother
insisted that he sing as he played when he was a child, hence Gould's
lifelong love of singing, his gorgeous singing tone at the piano (when he
wanted it), and of course his own voice accompaniment.
-Greg