Re: Brendel vs Gould : perspective

[jerry <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

><unlurk>
>
>Brendel and Gould obviously met sometime "when we were very young."
>
>"After dinner he [Gould] sat down at the piano and played a piece by Ernst
>Krenek which he was very enthusiastic about. Then he played the sonata for
>piano by Alban Berg, which i had studied too. After the performance I was
>able to point out to him that he had not punctuated the rhythm in one
>place. Some time later [our host] played a tape of the fugue of the
>Hammerklavier-Sonata that I had just recorded, and Gould told me that there
>was a place in which i had doubled octaves, even though they were not in
>the text. This was quite funny and I have to say that Gould was very
>charming and good-looking. In the years that followed he was very friendly
>towards me in an essay, praising my Mozart-Concert recordings. In an
>extensive interview in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" [still one of
>Germany's leading newspapers] someone told me he said he was leading
>longish telephone conversations with me - which is totally incorrect."
>
>I guess this paragraph puts Brendel's comments on Gould's musicianship into
>perspective. There was no personal disagreement as the two met only once,
>they just seem(ed) to be totally different musicians. (Brendel adores
>Mozart, of course)
>
>This leads me to a question: I am always a bit astounded at Gould's
>profound "discomfort" with Mozart. Reading some of his letters and essays
>on the topic I find that Brendel is not altogether incorrect in calling
>Gould an eccentric. Is anyone aware of another musician equally disinclined
>towards Mozart? (I can understand Gould's rantings, yet I think this is due
>to my lack of classical training (I'm a Bach addict though...))
>
>Arne Klindt
>
></unlurk>

"praising my Mozart-Concert recordings"?  I wonder what Glenn meant?
This phrase immediately forced me to remember that slight by Mozart against
Salieri in "Amadeus".   The Mozart character tells Antonio something to the
effect that there's no mistaking his (Salieri's) works, and Antonio tries
to accept it graciously as a compliment.  ;)

Arne, did you mean to write, "I can understand Gould's rantings, yet I
think this is due
to my lack of classical training"?

Gould put certain aspects of Mozart into a cogent perspective for us,
against the century's upward trend in Mozart worship, AND he didn't laud
all over him for his fine symphonies, ensemble successes, and his many
remarkable and mature statements in most every form.   It is interesting
that although WAM's forms and styles were 'popular' (in the derogatory
sense), the lines of musical development, which he made personally his own,
were never surpassed, even by LvB!  (according to Ludwig himself <grin>).
Of course, this is endlessly debateable...

Jerry