tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post4833800770395137123..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Retro Record Review #5: Bach, Goldberg VariationsBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-64296574629333787262015-07-13T15:53:08.843-05:002015-07-13T15:53:08.843-05:00No. I don't know Grigory Sokolov's work at...No. I don't know Grigory Sokolov's work at all. Not that surprising, actually. While Sokolov's name is of course known to me, I've a marked antipathy for the piano as an instrument, generally speaking, and have very little in my existing library featuring that instrument.<br /><br />ACDA.C. Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090447201234367871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-80955488565354199802015-07-13T08:01:15.173-05:002015-07-13T08:01:15.173-05:00Have you heard Grigory Sokolov's Art of Fugue?...Have you heard Grigory Sokolov's Art of Fugue?Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-35715917729259802442015-07-12T15:19:59.355-05:002015-07-12T15:19:59.355-05:00Very, very interesting thought and very well put!Very, very interesting thought and very well put!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-18826410207952590732015-07-12T14:37:47.062-05:002015-07-12T14:37:47.062-05:00Some years ago I had a flash of insight concerning...Some years ago I had a flash of insight concerning Gould's Bach readings generally and wrote the following in a 2006 S&F entry:<br /><br />=== Begin Quote ===<br />Listening last night to Glenn Gould's reading of The Well-tempered Clavier, Books I and II, I wondered, and not for the first time, what it was about Gould's Bach that made it so compelling, even — dare I say it? — transcendent. There are a number of readings of Bach's keyboard works by harpsichordists and pianists that are by any fair-minded and honest assessment first-rate ... but no other reading of my experience possesses that uncanny quality of almost preternatural rightness that's the preeminent hallmark of Gould's Bach readings.<br /><br />Perhaps the most illuminating nontechnical characterization of Bach's keyboard polyphony — illuminating for performer and listener alike — is that, at bottom, it's an in-progress intellectual and philosophic conversation carried on by intellectual equals. And, interestingly, embedded within that anthropomorphic characterization lies, I think, the answer to the question.<br /><br />While all first-rate keyboardists recognize that in-progress conversation and acknowledge its existence in their Bach readings, Gould alone among them understands precisely what each speaker is saying, knows exactly what the conversation is about, and understands fully all its manifold implications.<br />=== End Quote ===<br /><br />Thought I'd share that.<br /><br />ACDA.C. Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090447201234367871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-66135255859691192402015-07-12T07:52:49.601-05:002015-07-12T07:52:49.601-05:00I know exactly what you mean! There are so many th...I know exactly what you mean! There are so many things about music that we cannot express in words. I haven't been listening to Gould's Goldbergs recently, but I think I feel the same about some of his Well-Tempered Clavier. There is a clip on YouTube of Gould playing the E major fugue from Bk 2 in an absolutely transcendental way that no-one else has even come close to.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-35196477348983791402015-07-11T18:45:13.974-05:002015-07-11T18:45:13.974-05:00"I think that people listen so much to Gould&..."I think that people listen so much to Gould's Goldbergs that they get imprinted."<br />_____________________________________<br /><br />That may well be true generally and I'm of course well aware of that. But it runs deeper than that, I think. It does so in my case at least. Whenever I listen to Gould's reading I simply can't shake the impression Gould had a direct line, so to speak, which line runs: Gould to Bach's deepest internal vision of the work, and Bach to God's.<br /><br />Sorry. Didn't mean to go all metaphysical on you. Seems an ineluctable hazard whenever one speaks of encountering this work and Gould's realization of it.<br /><br />ACD<br />A.C. Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090447201234367871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-30102076721534872112015-07-11T17:47:16.629-05:002015-07-11T17:47:16.629-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.A.C. Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090447201234367871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-43386994455702325362015-07-11T15:37:08.869-05:002015-07-11T15:37:08.869-05:00Well, there are reasons why Gould's two record...Well, there are reasons why Gould's two recordings are so very famous and popular. Good reasons. But my feeling as a performer is that no-one ever "owns" a piece like the Goldbergs, not even Gould. I hear a lot of good things in the three harpsichord versions. I think that people listen so much to Gould's Goldbergs that they get imprinted. Doesn't mean the other performances are wrong, just that you are over-exposed to Gould.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-70401257899355268252015-07-11T15:01:51.714-05:002015-07-11T15:01:51.714-05:00"It is hard to listen to any other interpreta..."It is hard to listen to any other interpretation [after Gould's]."<br />______________________________<br /><br />It is, you know. Somehow they all sound "wrong". Very wrong, Landowska's included.<br /><br />ACDA.C. Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090447201234367871noreply@blogger.com