[f_minor] Bravo Fortissimo Howler

[Houpt, Fred]

What a funny thing for Gould to say.  I was recently listening to his
infamous Brahms Piano Concerto with Bernstein and the NY Phil....this is
on You Tube (bless them for all the goodies uploaded)....and you know I
found myself not finding the interpretation of the first movement as
outrageous and as "teetering" on the edge of sanity as many felt when
they first heard it. The thing with Gould's extreme interpretations is
that he is almost shouting at us like a Zen Roshi to wake up and listen
to a very familiar piece in a totally fresh and unique way.  Gould used
extremism to make those points, much to many people's dismay.  I don't
know...as I age I am not as put off by the exaggerated mannerisms....and
I am more apt to try to grasp what his enormously fertile intellect is
endeavoring to uncover, even if by grossly overt means.  
 
Finally for now, I also put on GG on Y.T. playing a few extracts of the
Art of the Fugue by Bach and you see that this was late in his
career....and what fascinated me more than the actual playing which was
ethereal, was the (again) extreme hand gestures as he conducts one hand
over the other which was playing.  It seems on the surface level to be a
bit teetering towards spasmodic almost epileptic body motions but then
he just as quickly subsides when adding the second hand, not losing one
single watt of energetic motion.  It's mesmerizing to watch as it is so
calming to listen to.......
 
I'll be taking a powder from the office soon....
 
Cheers from bombed out downtown Toronto (don't even ask what last week
was like)
 
Fred Houpt

________________________________

From: f_minor-bounces at glenngould.org
[mailto:f_minor-bounces at glenngould.org] On Behalf Of maryellen jensen
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 4:00 PM
To: f_minor at glenngould.org
Subject: [f_minor] Bravo Fortissimo Howler



"I take a powder right after a concert because I have this kook
contingent who follow me from place to place, and some of them are
really teetering on the balance." 
- Glenn Gould

  "Take a powder" is old slang for leave quickly, disappear, get away
fast. 

 I recently sent the following to another member of this List:
 Bazzana (Wondrous Strange) quotes Gould's unsent 'personal ad' on pages
321, 322, "Wanted: Friendly, companionably reclusive, alcoholically
abstemious, tirelessly talkative, ..." etc etc which ends with the
address "Avalon Peninsula, Nfld." BUT in Mesaros' book the same
'personal ad' is quoted on pages 341,342 with the address: "Anaton
Penisslow Nfld." Can you believe that? I'm afraid that the Freudian Dr.
Mesaros made an erroneous Big Penis out of a geographical feature and
Gould's notoriously tricky handwriting: 
          From Avalon Peninsula to Anaton Penisslow! 
More than most I love anagrams, wordplay, double-entendre, homophones,
The London Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword and I can assure you that
Mesaros is a clumsy wordsmith at best - howlers ahoy matey.
 Mesaros really needed a proofreader and a fact checker. Another case in
point is an entry in a Gould 'notebook' quoted on pages 349,350,351 in
Bazzana and pages 340,341 in Mesaros. Mesaros states that the text
concerned Gould's feelings for Cornelia Foss (although her name never
appears) BUT Bazzana states that the text is from a Gould 'notebook'
dated 1980. Bazzana doesn't use conjecture, he states a fact, a date and
doesn't presume to know who Gould was scribbling about. Sure - let's
talk about Mesaros' book, by all means.
Mary

 



  

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