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 Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:44 am
So how does this guild feel about Glenn Gould's piano interpretations of Bach's works? I'm especially interested in knowing what you think of the Goldberg Variation recordings.
I thought he's generally inspiring to me. I love Bach and I think Gould makes him dramatic. I like it. But I also dislike it, and also sometimes dislike the sound of him during recordings and all that.
But I just heard the two recordings side on side in an album called "A State of Wonder" which features both and some interview and outtakes from recording sessions. I felt they're actually really good! Especially the latter one was surprising...
But yeah what do you think?
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:05 pm
I've heard him play and his recordings sound like barf gonk
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:06 pm
I'm Canadian, and my university has done exibit after exibit of Gould. He's a God of Canadian classical music.
But while I do tip my hat to the exposure he gave baroque music, I HATE HATE HATE his Bach. I've listened to his Bach two part inventions a few times, and while it's decent to listen to, I find it very un-baroque. His phrasing becomes unclear when he keeps slapping the sustain down, and his tempi change almost erraticly from one to the other. Listen to him play Invention 2 (Cm) and 4 (Dm). 2 crawls like molasses, and 4 is hurling through space at about warp 9.8... mrgreen
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:15 pm
liebestraume I'm Canadian, and my university has done exibit after exibit of Gould. He's a God of Canadian classical music. But while I do tip my hat to the exposure he gave baroque music, I HATE HATE HATE his Bach. I've listened to his Bach two part inventions a few times, and while it's decent to listen to, I find it very un-baroque. His phrasing becomes unclear when he keeps slapping the sustain down, and his tempi change almost erraticly from one to the other. Listen to him play Invention 2 (Cm) and 4 (Dm). 2 crawls like molasses, and 4 is hurling through space at about warp 9.8... mrgreen That is SO true!
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:19 am
I still like some of it biggrin I think it's reasonable not to really count it as Baroque music (piano, Gould's personality, etc.) but to take it a bit differently and with a bit more open-to-playfulness attitude.
The recordings I have here are remastered, you can't even hear him humming on them as compared to any other recording I've heard. But I agree though he's not my favorite Bach interpreter by far. Still, I think there's something interesting about it ;D
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:45 pm
I study here in Ottawa, and across the bridge in Hull, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, there was an entire Glenn Gould exhibit. You got to see all the quirks of this guy, from the Soviet postcards he sent to his dog, to that hideous chair he played sitting in, to his piano, which I snuck my arm under the velvet rope to play a note on mrgreen !
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:55 am
So, does it sound as good in real life as fabled? mrgreen
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:28 am
Well, I quite literally played *a* single note on it, lol. That having been said, it looks very unassuming - I've seen grand pianos of its type hidden in the back closet of any given conservatory, used as coffee tables, collecting dust...
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:40 pm
gonk Th..they use grands as coffee tables in conservatories?! scream They should send one to me!
Was the chair there too, then? If so, how was that?
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:39 am
Well, I'm not of a terribly assuming height (5'10", give or take). I'm pretty sure I'd feel like I was squating playing on that thing, it was sooo low to the ground. He must've had a world of back problems!
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:34 pm
Well, I really love Glenn Gould, especially his Goldberg Variations. Having said that... I'm a cellist, not a pianist, so I'm not exactly an expert in piano recordings or anything. But still, I really enjoy his humming (quirky, adds another musical aspect, etc) and his recordings in general. I've only briefly listened to any other recordings other than his, though, so it might be that I've just got them ingrained as the definitive one and that's why I like them so much.
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