Will there ever be another Glenn Gould?

Toronto Star ^ | September 23, 2007 | John Terauds

[jammer]

Oops, I was being (unclearly) tongue-in-cheek about Dexedrine. I publicly swear, affirm, assert that I have never ingested Dexedrine. Want to make that clear.

[nonsporting]

Personally, I never enjoyed listening to his recorded CDs -- his habit of 'humming' while playing was really disconcerting.

I attended a Christopher Parkening concert in the mid '70s and had front row seats. I kept hearing someone rhythmically breathing to the music and it was buggin' me. I soon realized that it was Parkening himself. I own many of his recordings and none of them have anything except the music. Maybe this was a period he was going through.

[garyhope]

Thanks for the reminder.

I think it will be a very, very long time, if ever, before there’s another Glen Gould.

As soon as you hear the playing, you know it’s him.

In some ways I’m reminded of the violin playing by Sergui Luca in that it seems so individual and musical rather than trying to play virtuosically.

[JZelle]

Eliott’s boy

[MeekMom]

Ohh, I would have never known. Thanks JZelle.

[Borges]

Thanks for the ping. I’m already on the Classical Music ping list! Gould actually hated the Appassionata. He said on his own Beethoven poll it would rank somewhere between the Wellington’s Victory Symphony and the King Stephen Overture (at or near the bottom) and was filled with ‘belligerent rhetoric’. For that matter he claimed to dislike almost all music written between 1750 and 1850.

[Borges]

You have to be careful with Gould. He disliked Mozart and played the sonatas in a deliberately offputting manner (Alberti basses drowning out the melodies...everything played stacatto).

[Rane _H]

I thought the Zenph Studio “re-performance” of the Variations was interesting. Or maybe that’s just the tech geek in me talking. I haven’t seen it publicized much so I’ll link it.

http://zenph.com/sept25.html

I think Gould’s Goldbergs would be my desert island recording...maybe :)
Something Bach at least.

[caver]

It’s interersting to learn more about him. I need to broaden my tastes so as to not judge him so quickly.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

“We especially like the quirky recording of the two- and three-part inventions”

Especially.

I didn’t hear any humming that I can remember. But there was something funny about his piano in the mid ranges, tinny or what? double struck note? It was like there was a register just in the upper range of hearing that made his playing, at least in the cd I have, a bit ethereal.

[Maigret]

I LOVE Gould! Whenever I’m frazzled I know that if I put Glenn on within a short time it is as if my whole system has been reordered and like an intricate piece of Bach music, everything is in its place.

I once read of a brain surgeon who never operated until he’d listened to some of Gould’s Bach, he believed it had the power to get all his neurons firing properly as well.

Happy Birthday, Glenn! We miss you.

[Mr. Mojo]

we were transfixed by the image of a strange man humming, gesticulating, practically crouched at his keyboard,

He kind of looked like Tom Waits at the keys; he was as weird as Waits as well.

Gould was an amazing talent, but I must admit his constant humming annoys the heck outta me.

[Mr. Mojo]

I'll admit that the singing could be annoying, but the same can be said for, say, Andre Watts live

And the jazz (and sometimes classical) pianist Keith Jarrett as well. Quirky I don't mind. ...only if it doesn't interfere with listening.