Bach - Art of fugue - Contrapunctus4 - Glenn Gould
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Ah, thanks so much for these Bach/Gould posts. I'm ill-equipped to speak about music, even though Gould's Bach recordings have formed something like a soundtrack to my days and nights for many a year. ( btw, Eddie Fischer's recordings of Bach are pretty incredible too I think, do you know them?) I just want to share a little comment by Gould about his recordings of the Art of the Fugue. ( I imagine you probably know it already, and anyway, I'm only quoting them from the sleeve notes to the GG Anniversary edition of Art of the Fugue.) His first public recital of AF was in 1956. In 1981, the film producer of 'Gould plays Bach' was able to persuade G. to play the incredible - but fragmentary - Contrapunctus XIV. On the eve of the recording he phoned the producer: "It's the most difficult thing I've ever approached. It's...- you've got to keep it going - how do you do that? I've got several versions - one which sounds like a pavane and another like a cigue, all very different in tempi and phrasing and articulation so on." The sleeve notes continue: "The piece breaks off at the end of bar 239 with an eight-note D above middle C. At this point Gould snatches up his arm as though suffering from an electic shock. The picture freezes, and the arm remains suspended in the air, now and evermore..."
Thanks amie - i have the same recording with the sleeve notes! Was delighted to find those clips on Youtube. There's also a clip of Gould talking about the Art of Fugue - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlCgz4wbreM. I absolutely share your love of Gould's BAch pieces, ever since someone introduced me to the Goldberg variations. nb There's a lovely description by JOhn Berger of gould's playing - 'He plays like one of the already Dead, come back to the earth to play its music'. Something like that.
Thanks for the youtube link to Gould discussing Art of the Fugue. I particularly love his comment that AF is not about virtuosity. I don't know the Berger text, but considering the striking quote, will have to look it up. While thinking of the virtuosity issue, I remembered that Edward Said has written about Gould as well: 'The Virtuoso as Intellectual' and 'Remembrance of Things Played.'
4 comments:
Ah, thanks so much for these Bach/Gould posts. I'm ill-equipped to speak about music, even though Gould's Bach recordings have formed something like a soundtrack to my days and nights for many a year. ( btw, Eddie Fischer's recordings of Bach are pretty incredible too I think, do you know them?)
I just want to share a little comment by Gould about his recordings of the Art of the Fugue. ( I imagine you probably know it already, and anyway, I'm only quoting them from the sleeve notes to the GG Anniversary edition of Art of the Fugue.)
His first public recital of AF was in 1956. In 1981, the film producer of 'Gould plays Bach' was able to persuade G. to play the incredible - but fragmentary - Contrapunctus XIV. On the eve of the recording he phoned the producer:
"It's the most difficult thing I've ever approached. It's...- you've got to keep it going - how do you do that? I've got several versions - one which sounds like a pavane and another like a cigue, all very different in tempi and phrasing and articulation so on."
The sleeve notes continue:
"The piece breaks off at the end of bar 239 with an eight-note D above middle C. At this point Gould snatches up his arm as though suffering from an electic shock. The picture freezes, and the arm remains suspended in the air, now and evermore..."
Thanks amie - i have the same recording with the sleeve notes! Was delighted to find those clips on Youtube. There's also a clip of Gould talking about the Art of Fugue - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlCgz4wbreM. I absolutely share your love of Gould's BAch pieces, ever since someone introduced me to the Goldberg variations. nb There's a lovely description by JOhn Berger of gould's playing - 'He plays like one of the already Dead, come back to the earth to play its music'. Something like that.
Thanks for the youtube link to Gould discussing Art of the Fugue. I particularly love his comment that AF is not about virtuosity.
I don't know the Berger text, but considering the striking quote, will have to look it up.
While thinking of the virtuosity issue, I remembered that Edward Said has written about Gould as well: 'The Virtuoso as Intellectual' and 'Remembrance of Things Played.'
Amie - John Berger, "Will it be a Likeness?" in The Shape of a Pocket
Post a Comment