RE: GG Chopin

[David Dahlbom <ddahlbom@neon.ci.lexington.ma.us>]

>It has never surprised me that Mr. Gould played little or no Chopin.
>(Actually, I really dig Chopin notwithstanding my general lack of
>interest in the Romantic composers as a whole.)  Piano technology was
>fairly advanced by the time Chopin came along, and his works are really
>designed to take advantage  of a really beautiful, sonorous sound and
>lots of sweeping Romantic phrasing, and frankly a good deal of pedal.
>That is not really how I think of Mr. Gould's playing.

In general, it would seem, Gould was mostly interested in pieces that were more instrument independent , e.g. Bach's The Art of Fugue.  To him music was more about structure and bringing out that structure than making sonorities.  I personally have not dealt much with Chopin (probably due to the fact I am fifteen and Gould's opinion has had a great impact on me and my choice of repitiore ), but I don't have trouble believing Gould when he says that Chopin was not as good at keeping up large scale structure as, say, Bach, Schoenberg or Scriabin ( which was his excuse for recording ( and enjoying ) the Chopinesque early Scriabin that he did ).  So it doesn't particuarly surprise me either that he didn't think Chopin was a good composer and didn't record more Chopin.

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David Dahlbom          Sleep Deprived Piano Student and High School Freshman
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