He was definitely one of a kind, not to mention a very kind gentleman. My families cottage wasn’t far from where the cottage he spent much of his time at was located, so I had the privilege of meeting him as a young boy several times. Even at that age I knew exactly what he represented, but you wouldn’t know it talking to him. He was absolutely brilliant, but at the same time incredibly humble, just a kind, decent, compassionate soul, Who even invited myself and my sister in so we could hear him play, as I would often hide behind a tree listening to him practicing, standing there in bewildered awe. He lived a relatively solitary lifestyle from what I could gather, but he definitely was not antisocial as so many people thought he was, if anything he was quite charming, perhaps because we were so young he treated us with such great respect, but he also treated my family the same way. Even though it was a long time ago, and I only spoke to him a handful of times, he was gracious in every respect, and I admired him so much. I had it not been for my horrendous health, I would have loved to follow in his footsteps, but sadly I lack 99% of the talent he had. There will only ever be just one Glenn Gould, a prodigy, a genius, dare I say often underappreciated for the amount of talent he had to offer all of us.
@@fmoll2509 thanks Marina, and you’re so right, there will never be another one like him… but I try to look at it differently, every generation has their own version of Glenn Gould. The newer ones like Lang Lang, Valentina Lisitsa, Tiffany Poon, plus a few new up and comers, each with their own unique style, their own strengths and talents, will keep classical piano alive, forever. No two pianists will ever be alike, but that’s what makes it so fascinating, and so beautiful, at least for me. I love to hear each performers, individual techniques, although there I say, Mr. Gould outshined them all. Once every century along comes a performer, that is far far ahead of their time, he was one such person, but it doesn’t stop me from opening my mind to new performers, because they’re all incredibly talented people. Ever since I was a child, I have loved classical piano, not sure why, I just do. I don’t come from a musical family, in fact, I am the only person in my family that’s musically, inclined, but perhaps that’s why I appreciate it that much more, because by introducing my family to something they knew nothing about, they are passing it along to their children. Music is not just notes on a page, it’s an international language, one that everybody can understand and appreciate. It brings us all together, no matter where we are from. It has the most amazing ability to make all of us forget about our differences, set aside our problems, and just be together as one to listen to the works of some of the greatest geniuses that ever existed. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’ve always believed music has the ability to cross all socioeconomic, political, and racial barriers, and I think it always will. I’ve travelled the world as much as I could to learn new cultures, to hear his new music, to witness the birth of new performers. I was in China long ago, when Lang Lang was not yet famous. I saw him perform a concert in a small hall with perhaps 100 people, as soon as I heard him play, I knew he was going to be an international superstar, and I consider myself so fortunate to have met two of the greatest pianists within my lifetime. When it comes to music, we have to let go of our preconceptions, political beliefs, hatred’s, and just enjoy, binding us together in one unified force of humanity. Suddenly we’re not members of a country, but of a species. That’s how powerful classical music, or for that matter, all music, can be. That’s why I believe it to be absolutely essential we never let it die, to do so, would be killing a part of ourselves. Anyways, my apologies for rambling, but when it comes to this subject, I could talk forever. Thank you again, enjoy your weekend, and many blessings to you and yours, cheers!
@@GIguy Вы прекрасно и четко излагаете свои мысли - чувствуется, с кем Вы имели дело по соседству)). И я Вас очень хорошо понимаю и полностью согласна. Дай нам Бог в это непростое время слышать Музыку, тогда мы все понимаем друг друга, как люди, жители одной планеты. Жизнь продолжается, и музыка продолжается, во всем ее богатстве и многообразии, но я могу слушать других, только если это не исполнял Гленн Гульд. Я упрямый однолюб 😄. Всех Вам благ и хорошего дня!
Уважаемый мистер TJ in Toronto! Прошу прощения, что пишу на своем языке - так быстрее, но английский я понимаю хорошо и буду рада, если у Вас будет настроение поделиться воспоминаниями детства и поговорить о музыке. Ютуб отличная штука! Гленн Гульд был бы счастлив пообщаться со слушателями в таком формате, я уверена. Тем более, на разных языках, без проблем 🤩.
There's nothing more harmonically and sonically interesting and unusual to me than that 4th fugue. What emotion is trying to be conveyed? Happiness, sadness, ecstasy, anger, longing, introspection, it seems to be all at once and all extreme forms of each one. Such an intense piece and I can't really find a rival anywhere.
He is SO right about Bach being a musical architect. So many composers try to paint a kind of musical picture in sound. To me, Bach's work is more like an amazing structure, like a kind of musical Eiffel Tower.
It's just fascinating the way Gould almost seems to be conducting his hands, the way a conductor would lead an orchestra. The way his eyes jump from hand to hand as the melodic lines move back and forth.
Watching this and the other Gould videos, it is evident that he wrote his texts and memorized them. Gould had an extraordinary capacity for memorization of music, and here we see no reliance on a prompter; instead he occasionally bows his head while trying to focus on what comes next. A difference between him and Bernstein's teaching is that Gould's scripts are more-or-less textbook prose for the highbrow intellectual, where Bernstein actually wrote scripts to be spoken and to reach the open-minded middlebrow (or would-be middlebrow), who he is trying to reach.
Bernstein's scripts can be found in the internet. He wrote them by hand. I have a book "The Joy of Music" based on his lectures. He was able to put it understandable language musical concepts. He explained both the simple and profound. Both he and Gould were intellectuals. What you say is accurate, yet I am surprised that years later when I listen to his lectures that Bernstein did not talk down to his listeners, especially children.
Finally... composers are so old that people avoid that detail. The pianist is only playing, the real genius was the one who created it !! It is also difficult to interpret and that is valued. It is the first comment I have read clarifying that. Since these composers were born so long ago, people godify them so much that they end up admiring the prophet more than the creator himself. Thank you
It's an experimental harpsipiano made for Gould by Steinway. Basically, they added small T shaped metal bars into the end of the hammers. The metal bars hitting the piano strings produced a metallic harpsichord like sound, but still allowed the dynamic control of a piano. Is a way, it's rather like a kind of super clavichord, but without the ability to bend notes like one can do on a true clavichord.
Nothing he could have said by way of introduction (though worthy as it is) might have placed a fly on the following performance of the fugue. Astounding writing and Gould is equal to it. Very few are.
@@gianlucamarcialis3595 i see i hadnt noticed he's using a diffetent inatrument (i think i had watched up to only the intro and didnt realize this was a harpsi-piano(
@@fludeball If I remember correctly, they had small metal bars floating between the hammer and the strings. Steinway wouldn't bother with anything so crude as the thumbtack method.
@@PointyTailofSatan Just put thumbtacks jeez if it dosen’t change the sound that’s fine. Oh by the way in a documentary about Gould when I heard this recording it used thumbtacks.
It was the Gould's playing of the Contrapunctus IV in his first concert in Moscow in 1957 that electrified the audience. And no simple audience, but an audience of classical music students and instructors from the world renowned music department of Moscow University. The hall was only half full, as no one knew Gould, and because Bach's music was rarely played, as the atheist Communist authorities considered Bach a "church musician". When the intermission arrived, everyone, students and instructors alike, were racing to phones and to nearby dormitories, declaring Gould a musical Orpheus, and for their contacts to drop everything and race to the hall! By the time the concert was over, the hall was standing room only.
I love Gould but his insistence on pronouncing Bach as 'Bock' is really irritating in that way that North Americans generally have of refusing to pronounce non-Anglo names properly.
@@pianosbloxworld4460 In IPA it would be transcribed as [bax], I'm sure you can find examples of the proper German pronunciation on RU-vid or Wiktionary. Translated to English the German word "Bach" means brook or stream; "Bock" on the other hand (rhyming with rock, even in German) refers to a male sheep or goat (Schafs-/Ziegenbock), so please don't pronounce it like that!
What pretentious nonsense. Gould places himself above all Bach scholarship and judges from that exalted position. He likes to shock because he doesn’t really have anything worth saying.
@@garrysmodsketches You fail to distinguish between Gould’s talent as a performer from his capacities as a musicologist. Gould was a world class pianist- but some of his interpretations are laughable. The tempi of Brahms’ first piano concerto, for instance, are the mechanical way in which he played Mozart. It’s just bad. And his awful recording of Beethoven’s Appasionata. Gould’s greatest recordings were of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (both of them).
In Listening to the substance regardless of style of delivery it seems to me that Gould is far too "absorbed" in what he does to be self conciously pretentious.
