Too harsh, I think, for such a noble effort. Although I am quite against the idea of a computer ever being able to reproduce anything at all to do with performing the piano, it at least makes for an interesting experiment.
Singh
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 13:44:54 -0700
From: william.larson@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [F_minor] Fogelsong Is Back (still a happy customer)
To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
--- On Tue, 5/26/09, Kpapademas <kpapademas@aol.com> wrote:
I think that is the Zenph recording of GG's 1955 Goldberg Variations. (see http://www.zenph.com/). Zenph is also part of "The Bach Project".
Oh. that horrible Zenph thing. I can never resist stepping into the discussion when this comes up. I would guess that Gould would have cackled at the ability of a computer to do what it does in this instance, but a) in 1980-81 he said he no longer related to the spirit behind this performance, and would have therefore found it artistically pointless, and b) although I think it was a "Yamaha voiced to sound like a Steinway" (righto-- then why aren't we all doing that to our pianos, and putting Steinway out of business??), it really sounded more like a garden-variety Kawaii interred in a resonant tomb, shrouding the piano in a sort of blur that was highly different that Gould's aesthetic of recording (clarity, clarity, and more clarity); also, that acoustic haze would have been handy to mask imperfections in the "re-performance." Not that I've cared enough to analyze the binaural mix at the end of the cd...
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