Re: italian concerto

[Juozas Rimas <JuozasRimas@TAKAS.LT>]

> have held back one musical example until now, and it should quash any doubt
> about this point: the finale of Bach's Italian Concerto, in Gould's original
> 1959 recording.

Is that finale in fact Presto from BWV971? Yes, the 1959 recording is great, and
I especially like the first part, Allegro - as a musical composition, with so
many wonderful variations on the joyful theme, and as a  performance - slower
than usual, as I've been told.

Juozas Rimas Jr
http://mp3.com/JuozasRimas - Baroque and more...


  This is  performance that could certainly be used to
> exemplify many aspects of the rational Gould--his idealist's image of Bach;
> his clear, controlled, analytical playing style; his obsession with
> counterpoint and structure; his ability to clarify for the listener both the
> musical details and the architecture of the whole; his special affinity,
> both aesthetically and ethically, with the medium of recording.  Yet this is
> also a performance of boundless energy and joy, a remarkable display of
> mental and digital facility, a powerful rendering of the music's inherent
> tension and drama.  It is  thoughtful performance that repays analysis, yet
> it never seems calculated; it seems all spontaneity and abandon.  We can, to
> be sure, admire the musical thinker behind this interpretation, but we also
> do well to notice that his is some of the most accomplished, compelling, and
> entertaining piano playing on record."
>
>
> That passage adds a little fire to my love of Gould every time I read it.
> Great book.
>
>
>
> Jim