The Smiley Smile Message Board

I thought I would start a Glenn Gould thread. Probably my favourite pianist. Very exccentric personality puts him on par with many rock stars. Perhaps he was the Brian Wilson of Classical music. My favourite record by him was his version of Brahms Ballades and Rhapsody's...the 1981 Goldberg Variations was also better than the original IMHO...

One of my idols.
Anyone who hasn't should see the brilliant film 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.

Hmm sounds like someone I should learn about.  All I know about him is that he was a Canadian pianist. 

Best classical pianist of all time, for my money. And an eccentric, wonderful, rock-star-like character.

Certainly one of the best classical pianists of all time, and undoubtedly a towering musical figure.  Despite his eccentricities he wasn't a recluse.  Very involved in television and radio and bringing music to the public.  Was a producer, writer, composer besides being an incredible musician.  You can catch some here at cbc's site, with whom he did a lot of work with.  Check out "idea of north".  http://archives.cbc.ca/IDCC-1-68-320-1709/arts_entertainment/glenn_gould/


Not only a great Bach interpreter but also a champion of earlier music (Sweelick) and modern (Schoenberg).  He was beginning to conduct before he passed away (Wagner).  My favorite recordings of his are the late Haydn piano sonatas which you can find  here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000028NR/qid=1137707536/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8846818-2607002?s=classical&v=glance&n=5174  You either love them or hate 'em.

Cool things about Gould--he was a snappy dresser, he brought his own chair and he would eat on stage.

The chair:

(http://www.lichtensteiger.de/Images/gouldstuhl.jpg)

My favorite is him bizrrely "singing" along while he played!
That CBC stuff is incredible. Thanks for posting that, I forgot how amazing those things are.

That's right!  I forgot to mention the "singing".  People used to try and return discs at the store because they thought they were defective--loserz.

Glad you dig the CBC site!

The singing is something a number of piano players do, more jazz guys than classical however. I recently heard an interview with somebody like (but not literally) Keith Jarrett (known to hum noisily and make Monica Seles-like grunts as he plays: the samurai-vocalizing tennis player is doing a version of the same thing imo). The pianist was asked 'why do you do that?', and responded that it had less to do with inspiration and passion than total preoccupation with playing the music right, a sort of unconscious 'whistling while you work' deal; he also commented that he'd discovered if he didn't shadow the playing  with his voice this way, he'd end up going totally slack jawed and drooling all over the piano instead!

Don't know if this applies to Glenn, though, whose other eccentricities included several layers of winter clothes worn at all times by the end of his life (or so I recall reading), and that low slung piano chair.

Wow. On all other pics of the chair I've seen, it was at least partially covered with cushin debris. Ouch.

And I thought my old computer chair was rough.

Gould's playing is sublime.  Whoever said the 1981 Goldbergs were better was spot on - less virtuosic, more subtle, mature and moving.  Bach is one of my favorite pop composers (I am not being facetious), and I could listen to Glenn Gould's interpretations every day.

I love the Goldberg Variations. He is an amazing pianist. I would kill to get more stuff from him.

There are so many Cd's of his music. He was very prolific. You should read Andrew Kazdans book "Glenn Gould at Work". A very interesting book about how he recorded most of his stuff and Kazdans working relationship with Gould. It is also interesting to anyone who records music...

I know nothing of his work. Like Laurie, all I knew of him was that he was Canadian. My old piano teacher was a classmate of Gould's.

Excellent film! I don't know how well it really captures his personality and everything (as I've never met the man), but I thought the film was excellent. What can I say about Glenn Gould! He's just the greatest. He's unequaled. His touch, his feeling, his clarity, his understanding of the music on the deepest possible level is just unbelieveable. Just watching him play sends shivers down my spine. I just love it when he plays a fugue or sinfonia so slow that were it anyone else you would just fall asleep or kill yourself after being subjected to it, but with him it's just pure bliss. I really can't say which Goldberg I like better. I listen to the 1955 one more, but the 1981 version is truly unique and ambitious, and I especially enjoy watching the video of it. My favourite of Gould's renditions is of The Art of the Fugue, although I wish he would have recorded the completed work. Actually, I like the piano renditions that were, I guess, put on as bonus tracks on the CD more than the organ ones. His performance of Contrapunctus 14 is just amazing.

That's cool...

Laurie should probably watch the 32 Short Films movie and decide for herself if she wants to get into GG. I think the movie is a good introduction into GG's world.

I like an old Black & White film done just after he became famous where he is trying different pianos in New York and the  salemen are quite bemused by his description of each piano's "sound".

BTW he passed away in 1982 so no one this side of heaven can meet him.