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Advice for Classical fans:

Gould polarises opinion like no other pianist. Personally I find his playing unpleasant and mannered, and his humming a distraction, but others argue that his approach fulfils the composer's original intentions - although how they know what those intentions were is open to debate.

For the Goldberg Variations, I seem to listen most often to Schiff on the piano, or Landowska on the harpsichord.
 
Alex S said:
Just played a Sony SACD of Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations. He spends the whole disc humming in the background. I guess Sony's engineers thought this was clever. All it does for me is put me in mind of that Smith & Jones sketch.

His humming has always been audible on that piece, even on lesser formats.

For my money, the best recording of the Variations that I have ever heard is Murray Perahia's superb 2000 release. I have it on CD. I don't think it was released on vinyl or SACD.

http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/89243/index.html

Andrew
 
Thanks Andrew, generally I like Murray Perahia's playing and agree with Tantris about Gould.
 
Agreed. Gould's is more Gould than Bach, and Perahia's is superb.

Still, we should be grateful to Gould - it was he who brought the work to prominence. Before Gould's first (rapid-fire) recording (1950s?), it was generally thought of as merely a set of keyboard exercises.

In addition, it's a good hi-fi test record - the better your hi-fi, the more intrusive becomes Gould's moaning! They could never shut the guy up (at one point the engineers threatened to gag him).
 
Gould's performance is a strong argument for downgrading, rapidly. I'd also be 'ting' and 'come' free.
 
I find Gould's humming a little distracting too (it's very present on my cd set containing both his 50s and 80s versions).

I'm not a huge fan of Perahia. When I saw him at the Edinburgh festival a few years back his interpretations (Beethoven's first concerto, one of the brandenburgs and mozart symphony) with the ASMF were very poor. Worse, not only did he 'sing along', he did so out of tune.



regards,

Tam
 
tones said:
we should be grateful to Gould - it was he who brought the work to prominence. Before Gould's first (rapid-fire) recording (1950s?), it was generally thought of as merely a set of keyboard exercises.

Historically, of course, this doesn't make a lot of sense.

Essentially all of JSB's keyboard works are "keyboard exercises". But that doesn't mean that cannot be sublime music at the same time, just as with Chopin's Etudes, or Schumann's Symphonic Etudes.

People who could play the piano or listen to non-symphonic music without falling asleep for lack of cymbal clashes have always been aware of the beauty of the Goldbergs. Just check the literature, from Einstein onwards. The Goldbergs have always been prominent. What Gould did was vulgarise them and turn 'em into a kind of moan-along thing.
 
I'm a Gould humming fan, except I'm not sure I'd dignify the noise he makes with the almost musical term "hum." Although I prefer Schiff. The Schiff complete Mozart piano concertos is good too.

For really superb piano playing noises - has to be Keith Jarratt - Koln Concert. Playing the piano whilst having a (female) multiple orgasm and carrying on with "slap my bitch up" piano thwacking.

Then it was his own / improvised piece and I guess he is allowed to approach it with a little less reverence than Bach.
 
Next week sees the reissue of the Messiaen Edition, an 18CD set of several of the key works of Olivier Messiaen - probably the most influential composer post WW2. The real draw to this set is the piano playing of Yvonne Loriod, which has not been fully available on CD for a few years, but there are good versions of other pieces such as Des Canyons aux Etoiles, and Sept Haïkaï (which is based on Japanese gagaku music). At bargain price, this is unmissable. (I am kicking myself however, for having paid a small fortune a few months ago for Messiaen's complete piano music on vinyl played by Loriod, to see it now appear on CD.)
 


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