Few people in any field of human endeavour become legends in their
own lifetime but Glenn Gould (1932-1982) was one.
Thirty-one years after his death and fifty-eight years after he first
recorded them his
Goldberg Variations remains among the most
celebrated and best-selling classical recordings of all time with
sales exceeding 100,000 for his 1955 recording at the time of his
death. This continues to do good business. He recorded them again
in 1981, this time digitally and in stereo and by 2000 that recording
had sold over 2,000,000 copies, a feat rarely if ever achieved by
recordings of classical music. The
Goldberg Variations was
a controversial choice of repertoire, especially given that it was
to be his debut recording since it had hardly ever been recorded before.
It was little known by the record buying public, something which is
difficult to imagine today. His record company tried to dissuade him
implying that it was best left to the likes of keyboard legends such
as Wanda Landowska or Jörg Demus and that he should choose something
more modest to start with. Gould, however, was adamant and recalled
that the Goldberg Variations was the first work he ever learnt independently
from his teacher, having begun studying it from 1950.
In the event his self confidence was proved justified and the January
1958 issue of
Gramophone commented that “Gould is superior
(to Landowska and Demus) in every way.” The choice of repertoire was
controversial and so was the speed and this has added to the enigma
that Gould has become. If you didn’t know the piece, and I confess
I don’t know it well enough to have an aural benchmark in mind when
I listen, then the speed though fast, doesn’t seem to me to be at
odds with the music. That said, I had to check further to verify it
when I read that fellow Canadian Angela Hewitt’s 1999 recording is
twice as long at 78:32 as opposed to 38:34! There are those critics
who say that Hewitt has the correct tempi for all the variations so
it is very much a matter of taste. People often say that their favourite
whisky is the one they’re drinking at the time and perhaps that may
be the case for some when it comes to this work. To quote
Gramophone
again “Some of his tempi may be fast, but his is a speed connected
with urgency more than with show or brilliance. He carries a phrase
through a gigantic upward or forward sweep, effortless, controlled
and clear as crystal ... Gould has some of the clearest counterpoint
I have heard in a long time ... This is the kind of performance I
shall treasure, for it has the kind of architecture in tone which
is often longed for but rarely found.”
Years later Gould himself was critical of this first recording describing
it as “too fast for comfort” and continued "I can no longer recognize
the person who did that. To me today that piece has intensity without
any sort of false glamour. Not a pianistic or instrumental intensity,
a spiritual intensity." His 1981 recording was nearly 13 minutes
longer so I must say that the 1955 version here is a white knuckle
ride of fabulous listening. It often has you shaking your head; just
listen to variation 21 and be amazed. First published in 1741 the
Goldberg Variations are now 272 years old yet Gould makes it sound
as if they had been composed yesterday and that to me is the true
test. Whatever else you may think it makes you view Bach in a wholly
new way with Gould seemingly able to concertina time. He makes the
music here seem as fresh and modern as anything you could wish for.
It is no wonder that Bach has been the inspiration for so many other
composers down the centuries. The booklet notes by John Kehoe put
it thus: “It was of little concern to Glenn Gould that Bach was a
17
th-18
th century composer. For this 20
th
century performer he was a 20
th century composer, and Gould’s
artistry would treat him as such”.
The rest of the first CD and the second are also of Bach and it is
interesting to read in the notes of the way that Gould’s playing split
opinion among critics who were often of the same mind about other
concerts and other artists. Of the same concert where Gould played
the D minor keyboard concerto with the New York Philharmonic, conducted
by Dmitri Mitropoulos, Paul Henry Long of the
Herald-Tribune
wrote: “I found the performance nothing less than shocking. His tone
was harsh, at times downright brutal. The whole thing was a caricature
of a baroque concerto”. However, Winthrop Sargent of
The New Yorker
wrote that it was “a masterpiece of coherence, control and fine musical
taste.” It only goes to show that beauty is also in the
ear of the listener as much as it is it is in the eye of the beholder.
Despite feeling somewhat ambivalent about Beethoven it was his second
piano concerto that Gould chose to launch his New York debut in 1957.
The fact that it was considered as the Cinderella of Beethoven’s piano
concertos mattered not to him or to Leonard Bernstein who conducted
it. At the recording session that produced the performance on the
third CD in this set Gould insisted on many retakes even when both
Bernstein and the producer were satisfied. The result even had that
most grudging of critics Harold C. Schonberg wax lyrical saying “The
results are beautiful ... Mr Gould can play with considerable dash
when necessary; but the overall impression is one of well-managed
plasticity, of piano merging with orchestra and veering out again,
of fine ensemble and musical finesse”.
The booklet notes explain that Gould was as pleased about the recording
of the first piano concerto which was conducted by Vladimir Golschmann,
writing to Golschmann that he hoped he was as proud as Gould was of
it saying “There is a real joie de vivre about it from beginning to
end.” It is interesting to read that it includes Gould’s own composed
cadenza which he later criticized as being “vastly inappropriate”
and is one of only three of Gould’s compositions to find their way
onto disc.
Arriving at CD4 we come to another of Gould’s great loves, Haydn.
He was very particular about which composers he would tackle just
as he was about which piano he would play. Indeed on several tours
he took his own piano with him. Again the notes are interesting as
they explain how Gould was ahead in his thinking in relation to Haydn
who was often regarded as a stripped-down version of Mozart. He made
it his mission to ‘re-educate’ the public by presenting Haydn piano
sonatas which were not at all popular at the time Gould recorded them.
The
Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob.XVI is played with
an elegance that did indeed cause a reappraisal in both the public’s
perception and with pianists who began to take the sonatas more seriously
in concert and in the recording studio. It is also very interesting
to read of Gould’s almost dismissive attitude to Mozart, a view that
many will find as sacrilegious today as in the past. His opinion was
that while Mozart’s early works were meritorious, likening them to
both Haydn and C.P.E. Bach, his later works were “too operatic”. He
regarded it as his duty to play them in a way that eliminated any
such feeling, forcing the public to look at them afresh. Whatever
one’s opinion of his way of looking at things one is forced to do
just that as witnessed here with his recordings of Mozart’s
Piano
Sonata in C major, K.330 and
Fantasia (Prelude) and Fugue
for Piano in C major, K.394.
Gould generally dismissed the so-called ‘romantic’ composers such
as Chopin so the final disc of his interpretations of Brahms’ intermezzi
is a particularly fascinating and valuable document. These recordings
were highly prized by Gould himself and he regarded them as among
the best he ever made. He said that he felt as a friend commented
“as though I was really playing for myself, but left the door open”.
That is probably the best kind of playing one could hope to hear,
as if one were eavesdropping on a private moment rather than on someone
trying to produce a performance principally to please their listeners.
There is a wonderful lightness of touch in his playing of these pieces.
I wondered if it was in any way due to following his teacher Alberto
Guerrero’s advice to pull down on the keys rather than striking them
from above.
The booklet reproduces an article that Gould’s friend and producer
at CBS Paul Myers wrote in 1973 and published in
Gramophone
which adds an illuminating insight into the mystique that surrounds
this most idiosyncratic and enigmatic of pianists. Myers explains
that Gould regarded himself not as a pianist but in his own words
as “a composer who plays the piano” and that because he regarded the
piano as the vehicle best suited to express himself and in order to
be a servant of the composer and their music.
Glenn Gould was a complete one-off. There have been many attempts
to explain his unique personality and at times perplexingly strange
behaviour that led for example to his habit of overdressing in hat,
coat, scarf and gloves even in 100degree weather, his dislike of being
touched and his habit of humming whilst playing which was often picked
up on recordings. Some have explained this as being due to a form
of autism and even a form of Tourette syndrome. All these elements
have over the years added to the fascination with this man that has
resulted in books, articles and films but in the end it is his consummate
artistry that is his legacy and the only valid way of viewing him.
There is no doubt whatever that though opinion may be divided about
his pianism and his interpretations he was so obviously a man who
loved playing and who preferred recording over public performance
with his final appearance in public being in 1964. Therefore those
of us who are fans are truly blessed with a plethora of brilliance
that is almost unsurpassed on record. These 5 CDs are part of that
legacy and those who regard him highly will either already own these
recordings or will rush to add them to their collection. No one who
has yet to discover the wonder that is Glenn Gould should hesitate
for a moment before hearing for themselves what a legend sounds like.
Steve Arloff
Masterwork Index:
Bach keybaord
concertos ~~
Beethoven
concerto 1 ~~
Beethoven concerto
2
Track listing
CD 1
J.S. BACH (1685-1750)
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 [38:34]
Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971 [13:09]
Chromatic Fantasy in D minor, BWV 903a [6:20]
Fantasy and Fugue in C minor, BWV 906 [7:02]
Concerto in D minor after Alessandro Marcello, BWV 974 [9:53]
CD 2
J.S. BACH
Keyboard Concerto No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052* [24:12]
Keyboard Concerto No.5 in F minor, BWV 1056** [27:58]
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein*; Vladimir Golschmann
**
CD 3
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 [22:07]
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Golschmann
Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major, Op.19 [27:58]
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein
CD 4
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob.XVI [17:54]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Sonata in C major, K.330 [16:15]
Fantasia (Prelude) and Fugue for Piano in C major, K.394 [9:26]
CD 5
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Intermezzo in E flat major, Op.117, No.1 [5:34]
Intermezzo in E flat minor, Op.117, No.2 [5:26]
Intermezzo in C sharp minor, Op.117, No.3 [5:18]
Intermezzo in E flat minor, Op.118, No.6 [5:58]
Intermezzo in E major, Op.116, No.4 [4:17]
Intermezzo in A minor, Op.76, No.7 [3:56]
Intermezzo in A major, Op.76, No.6 [2:11]
Intermezzo in B minor, Op.119, No.1 [2:22]
Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 118, No.1 [1:03]
Intermezzo in A major, Op.118, No.2 [5:53]
Glenn Gould (piano)
rec. locations not specified, CD1 Goldberg Variations 1955, rest 1960,
CD2 1959, CD3 1958, CD4 1958, CD5 1961
