BLOG LIA #4
HAVE YOU MET MISTER GOULD?
Last week I stumbled upon a picture of a young man, leaning against a wall - I was so fascinated by him that I had to find out who he was! It turned out to be the young Glenn Gould. !!!Glenn Gould!!!Everyone knows this name or at some point has heard of this incredible pianist and his interpretation of Bachs Goldberg Variations - and of course I had heard of Mister Gould as well but to be honest that was it…I had heard of him but I never really listened to him.
And that was the first thing I did and since then you could say I have an obsession that’s called Glenn Gould. This man, his music, his life is enormously fascinating, mysterious and extraordinary. There has been so much written and said about his genius and there is so much to find out and to listen to. Glenn Gould published a huge amount of papers about music himself - about Bach, Beethoven, Barbra Streisand, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, about what music to take to a desert island, about performing and recording…it is mind-blowing and I am still very much in the middle of discovering his works - he was taught by his mother when he was three years old. She wanted him to sing while playing the piano and he did throughout his whole life. He could read music before he could read anything else. With ten years old he knew he wanted to become a pianist. His 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations was an immense success, his rhythmic approach to Bach was a revelation. Since he didn’t like giving concerts, he stopped performing in public when he was 32. He much preferred the studio and dedicated himself to the recording of music. Also he created numerous radio and television programs. There is this one radio documentary that’s called Solitude Trilogy that is about Northern Canada and its people. I haven’t heard it yet but it is said to be incredible and I am gonna catch up on that for sure. You can find many good documentaries about him, I especially liked the one called „off the record“ and „on the record“, you’ll find great interviews with Gould when he was young, and you’ll see him practice as well as recording. It is deeply inspiring.
Listen to him play Beethoven’s 5th symphony arranged for piano by Franz Liszt - I had goose bumps when I heard it. And there is a movie called „32 short films about Glenn Gould“ that is supposed to be great. He recorded the Goldberg Variations one more time in 1981…
When you watch videos of him, you immediately recognize how low he sits at the piano and the chair he is using - his father had made this chair and he continued to use it even when the seat was completey worn through. I just remembered that there is also an interview from Glenn Gould with Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould, yes that’s right, he is interviewing himself about himself and that’s why I have to stop right here…I need to read it : )!
"The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.“
„I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can't think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that -- its humanity.“
„Never be clever for the sake of being clever. For the sake of showing off.“
„A record is a concert without halls and a museum whose curator is the owner“
- Glenn Gould
Documentaries:
Off the record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL9YjM1BqgY
Recordings:
Brahms Piano concerto No 1 (listen to Bernstein's introducing words!!!)
PS.: Bill Evans shared a mutual admiration for Glenn Gould. He recorded his album "Conversations with myself" on Gould's piano.
