[f_minor] Gould Meets Streisand

[maryellen jensen]

Fred you've got me bent over with laughter with Ethel Merman: all I can hear now is that massive explosion: "EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES FOR ME AND FOR YOU!!!" 

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s62MrU8mHx4&feature=related

Cole Porter adored her. I adore Cole Porter.

For anyone who hasn't already read (or reread) Gould's 'High Fidelity' article on "Classical Barbra" you simply must. It says so much about how he approached music. It's also a really touching love letter. There is a tiny little anecdote on page 192 of Otto Friedrich's Gould biography which describes an adoring Barbra and an absolutely stage struck Gould (and I imagine a rather nonplussed Stokowski, being the renowned 'tombeur de femmes' who witnessed Gould's magic moment and must have found the whole thing fort quaint).

Quite right, Streisand is no "fog horn", not in any sense. I'm not personally drawn to her style nor to her choice of repertoire but there is NO doubting her sublime delivery. Gould fell under her spell and thought that he could maybe right a few wrongs in her repertoire: I find that utterly charming. As to whether Streisand returned the compliment indeed she did - it was she who poked her head into that playback booth at Columbia NYC to introduce herself to Glenn Gould. Alas, she happened to be accompanied by another, lesser, Gould that day: a certain Elliot.

Mary Jensen

 
  		 	   		  
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