# Will There Be Another Glenn Gould?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Such impressive technique and provocative interpretations. WIll there ever be anyone who dares to be so individual?


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## Dreadful_Engines (5 mo ago)

Playing terribly and mumbling like you've got a terrible brain injury does not constitute "impressive technique and provocative interpretation".


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

There are dozens of pianist with his technique his interpretations are discussable. I seldom spin his recordings.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Such impressive technique and provocative interpretations. WIll there ever be anyone who dares to be so individual?


HJ Lim


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

I don't there will be another Glenn Gould however much I love him as a person and his music.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Some of the older recordings from Craig Shepphard sounds like a latter day Gould. The Bach partitas and inventions, for example. He’s quite a variable pianist - some things are outstanding and some things are much less outstanding.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I have the (maybe not the "older"?) Partitas and WTC with Sheppard and it is far more "normal" than Gould.

The closest to Gould I encountered is Oli Mustonen. (They can be directly compared in some Beethoven variations and Bach WTC 1, however some of the most interesting Mustonen is repertoire Gould never touched, namely Mussorgsky pictures + Tchaikovsky, Ludus tonalis, Shostakovich + Alkan Preludes.) 
At least sometimes he out-Goulds Gould with pointilist staccatissimo articulation and other excentricities but like Gould he seems also very dedicated and his interpretations can be highly interesting. There's hit and miss, of course, but their hits are often worthwhile a few misses.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Kreisler jr said:


> I have the (maybe not the "older"?) Partitas and WTC with Sheppard and it is far more "normal" than Gould.
> 
> The closest to Gould I encountered is Oli Mustonen. (They can be directly compared in some Beethoven variations and Bach WTC 1, however some of the most interesting Mustonen is repertoire Gould never touched, namely Mussorgsky pictures + Tchaikovsky, Ludus tonalis, Shostakovich + Alkan Preludes.)
> At least sometimes he out-Goulds Gould with pointilist staccatissimo articulation and other excentricities but like Gould he seems also very dedicated and his interpretations can be highly interesting. There's hit and miss, of course, but their hits are often worthwhile a few misses.


Do you hear Gould's partitas as not normal- apart from the touch? ( French pianists - Marguerite Long etc) played with a touch a bit like that.)


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

No. 😎


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I'd probably say Gould's Bach partitas are among his most "normal", i.e. not extraordinary or excentric recordings (whereas his WTC is all over the place, some very good (although I don't remember) some maddeningly odd). 
But Sheppard seems not excentric at all but rather straightforward (I also heard him several times in concert, although probably not solo recital, in 1996 when he was teaching at UW, Seattle). 
I got to know a lot of Bach's keyboard works (such as Partitas and Goldbergs) in Gould's recordings, so I basically realized some oddities only much later. But e.g. in Beethoven or Mozart sonatas there is hardly a single movement where Gould is not almost immediately recognizable because crazy fast or crazy slow or messing with dynamics or exaggerated staccato articulation or whatever. (Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.) And he could play differently (more "normal") as some of the early live recordings show (or also the Beethoven concerti are less odd than most of the sonatas he recorded).


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I wish I was as talented as him. Just a treasure IMO.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Some of the older recordings from Craig Shepphard sounds like a latter day Gould. The Bach partitas and inventions, for example. He’s quite a variable pianist - some things are outstanding and some things are much less outstanding.


Yes, indeed. His Beethoven is in between very impressive, but even newer Bach recordings may be sadly disappointing (AoF eg.)


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Mandryka said:


> Some of the older recordings from Craig Shepphard sounds like a latter day Gould. The Bach partitas and inventions, for example. He’s quite a variable pianist - some things are outstanding and some things are much less outstanding.


I purchased Shepphard's Bach Partitas a few years ago. Upon hearing it, the performance reminded me very much of Gould - I loved it.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

One wasn't enough for ya'?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> One wasn't enough for ya'?


Wouldn't you like to populate the world with millions of little Goulds?


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

The irony is, as a pianist Gould was quite influential on many prominent performers, even those considered more "conservative". For example, Murray Perahia's Goldberg Variations clearly show Gould's influence.
As a writer, humorous and serious, fiction, non-fiction and criticism, and as a TV/radio producer and performer, and an overall personality, he was one of a kind. 
Surely there will be many more unique performers and personalities in the classical music world, but as they too will be unique, there will not be any more Goulds!


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Such impressive technique and provocative interpretations. WIll there ever be anyone who dares to be so individual?


Don't forget his elocution.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

fluteman said:


> The irony is, as a pianist Gould was quite influential on many prominent performers, even those considered more "conservative". For example, Murray Perahia's Goldberg Variations clearly show Gould's influence.
> As a writer, humorous and serious, fiction, non-fiction and criticism, and as a TV/radio producer and performer, and an overall personality, he was one of a kind.
> Surely there will be many more unique performers and personalities in the classical music world, but as they too will be unique, there will not be any more Goulds!



There's an essay by Egarr where he talks about how hard it is to resist his influence in those particular variations



> Presently, we are faced with a conception by both players and listeners alike that is absolutely and inescapably affected and effected by Glenn Gould and his recorded performances on the piano. The only pre-Gould recorded performances in common circulation today are the two made by Wanda Landowska and that of Claudio Arrau. However, today’s collective consciousness on the matter seems not to trouble itself with these earlier approaches. Gould’s first studio recording of the variations from 1955 radically readjusted everyone’s perception of what Bach could sound like with its devastating speed, brilliance and Gouldian intellectual deconstruction. From that point on, the performance and recording of Bach on any keyboard, and the Variations in particular, was changed both for performers and listeners alike. Love it or hate it, Gould’s individual genius is impossible to ignore. The two highly individual studio recordings differ radically in many ways, giving us different examples of extreme tempo contrast between variations. Tempo relationship is one of the work’s most discussed problems and remains ultimately a subjective interpretative decision. . .
> 
> . . . The modern post-Gould tradition of fast and straight delivery that infects recordings of these variations was something that I have tried to address and redressWith the ‘Goldbergs’, the unbroken influence of piano (and organ) teaching from the first half of the twentieth century still makes itself very evident. A radical reassessment of and fresh insight into the historical harpsichord to my mind never really took place. Gould’s explosion onto the scene further complicated things. ‘Organ’-istic ideas of articulation and the stiffness of mid-twentieth-century piano interpretations of Bach, continue to pervade and influence modern harpsichord playing. The ‘Goldbergs’ must take the prize for the work most recorded with an utterly dry, fast, short and rhythmically rigid approach. in my recording. It seems inappropriate to the harpsichord, and intrinsically rooted to performance on the modern piano. I wanted to make the work feel like a musical whole – not a series of disconnected and unrelated exercises focused mainly on achieving high-speed, rhythmically inflexible mechanical fingers. I tried to give equal importance and musical value to the less obviously virtuosic variations and retain flexibility and humanity in the more acrobatic and overtly demonstrative parts. I always tried to keep a sense of the ‘Aria’ in the musical background. . . .
> 
> . . .


Microsoft Word - Richard Egarr essay.doc (harmoniamundi.com)


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> There's an essay by Egarr where he talks about how hard it is to resist his influence in those particular variations
> 
> 
> 
> Microsoft Word - Richard Egarr essay.doc (harmoniamundi.com)


In addition to Landowska and Arrau, Rosalyn Tureck's first recording dates back to 1947. Also, Glenn Gould was an admirer of Tureck's Bach.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Thanks for mentioning that 1947 Tureck performance @fluteman . I knew about it but had given up hope of ever hearing it. I now see that it’s on YouTube, so I will listen soon. Generally I prefer her earlier performances to her later ones.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

His Mozart is my favorite thing he did. So inspired and unique, I think Mozart would've been proud.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I very, very much doubt that. Gould wasn't generally a Mozart fan, and to me that comes through loud and clear in any Mozart I've heard from him.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Will there be another Glenn Gould? I hope not.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

He was surely more impressive than moving.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> His Mozart is my favorite thing he did. So inspired and unique, I think Mozart would've been proud.


Then you're lucky because I suspect that Gould didn't want to finish that contract, but he realized he'd better. 

Later, when he had more clout as a performer-in-demand he balked at a contract for the complete LvB sonatas. I don't know what happened after that. He recorded a lot of them.

Later he had much more control over everything, what he recorded and how he recorded, and other media projects.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think the appeal of Gould's Mozart to me is that he isn't taking him seriously at all, and just has fun poking fun at the music. It's really an enjoyable listen, in a comedic way.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I think the appeal of Gould's Mozart to me is that he isn't taking him seriously at all, and just has fun poking fun at the music. It's really an enjoyable listen, in a comedic way.


Did Mozart take them seriously? I've gotten some negative feedback about that question.

To me, they're meant to be teaching pieces for advanced piano students and Mozart succeeded exquisitely. Gould admired many things about Mozart, but if he believed like I do about the piano sonatas we can see why he was very 'playful' with these exercises. 

BUT, there's more than one thing to say about this. The main reason of course goes back to his statement that he wouldn't want people to buy an interpretation by him which sounds like one that they've already purchased by some other artist. The times were very different back then..


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Luchesi said:


> Did Mozart take them seriously? I've gotten some negative feedback about that question.
> 
> To me, they're meant to be teaching pieces for advanced piano students and Mozart succeeded exquisitely. Gould admired many things about Mozart, but if he believed like I do about the piano sonatas we can see why he was very 'playful' with these exercises.
> 
> BUT, there's more than one thing to say about this. The main reason of course goes back to his statement that he wouldn't want people to buy an interpretation by him which sounds like one that they've already purchased by some other artist. The times were very different back then..


I can see that argument. They do feel very routine.


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## ClassicalMaestro (Dec 10, 2017)

I would have to say no. He was an extraordinary genius and one of a kind. Probably the most controversial musician of the 20th century. He's one of my favorite pianists.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I see Gould as a composer, the way he manipulated the classics into his own. I also think there are composers and performers. I think it would be interesting to see Lang Lang perform Gould's renditions live. It would require a lot of training on his part, but I believe in him.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Who is the Gould of conductors?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Teodor Currentzis, admired by many, same amount haters .


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> Teodor Currentzis, admired by many, same amount haters .



Just put on his Bethoven 7th.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I've been enjoying Gould's Well Tempered Clavier lately!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

What do you think of his Scriabin?

Gould - Scriabin Sonata no. 5, Op. 53 (complete) - YouTube


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

TBH, there aren't too many renditions of works I don't enjoy and it's mostly dependent on the piece if I like it or not. In saying that, Satie is still my favorite composer along with Bartok as a distant second; still innovative, but not as dreamy which appeals to me.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

ClassicalMaestro said:


> I would have to say no. He was an extraordinary genius and one of a kind. Probably the most controversial musician of the 20th century. He's one of my favorite pianists.


My take on his uniqueness;

His mother was older than average. An older mom is better than a younger mom.

She was a pianist. Months before he was born she played what she thought was helpful music. 

He was an only child, and had a very lucky choice for a teacher, at the right time. The popping finger technique brought him tactilely into the music (he needed that). And his sounds had a feedback effect upon his playing (his popping fingers could be ‘watched’ and experienced apart from himself (if that’s understandable when I say that).

His childhood environment and his experiences (good and bad) shaped him. Perfect pitch aided him well in his appreciations, instead of turning him off.

His brain centers were a little different, apparently (for good and bad, it depends upon how we see it). He was anti-social, liked to be alone, wanted time away for concentration and a cleansing perspective.

He sang the notes from down deep inside. Most musicians feel them like that, but I can’t simultaneously sing them aloud, separately. Singing is all so helpful!, but that’s a very early habit which becomes an unconscious affectation.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> TBH, there aren't too many renditions of works I don't enjoy and it's mostly dependent on the piece if I like it or not. In saying that, Satie is still my favorite composer along with Bartok as a distant second; still innovative, but not as dreamy which appeals to me.


Did Bartok replaced Debussy?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Rogerx said:


> Did Bartok replaced Debussy?


debussy’s melody lacks for me.


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