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I play piano and watching videos of Gould playing is fascinating. He violates every rule your piano teacher tells you about performance, from his unusually low

by v64 6y ago

I play piano and watching videos of Gould playing is fascinating. He violates every rule your piano teacher tells you about performance, from his unusually low chair made to accommodate a back injury to his habit of singing along to tunes that was often picked up in his album recordings. I especially like this performance of Beethoven's 32 variations in C minor by him [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoWXRlw9vBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoWXRlw9vBA

dharma1 6y ago
this one is my favourite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rywN8MoiEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rywN8MoiEk ;)
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  Strangely enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQ_6r8EvUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQ_6r8EvUw
- siltpotato 6y ago
  So odd! I saw the URL gray and thought it was a Rickroll, but didn't see the familiar dQw. Apparently that's from when I was looking for DX7 videos.
mykowebhn 6y ago
I think it's also good to point out that Gould did not play the piano with curved fingers, as is mostly taught in the West. He played using a flat-fingered approach, taught to him by his teacher Alberto Guerrero. Interestingly, the tendency to keep one's fingers flat was also taught in the Russian school [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru9FDvUfz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru9FDvUfz4
yomly 6y ago
When you reach mastery you will usually end up breaking most rules. For starters, rules are meant to be one size fits all, but every body is unique which leads to different biomechanics. I knew a pianist who played Grieg concerto at the BBC Proms but she could barely stretch an octave. How she could play all the Chopin etudes from age 9 blows my mind. Speaking of Chopin his first teacher wasn't much of a pianist and realised Chopin's ceiling was far greater than his own so left him to his own devices wrt technique. Chopin ended up unlocking new techniques on the keyboard which he crystallised in the etudes. He essentially wrote them for himself. You will see rule breaking common amongst masters of a skill. In fight sports some of the best boxers have all kinds of bad habits - Inoue Naoya doing massive wind ups and Muhammad Ali dropping his hands. The rules are there to help us reach mastery but they shouldn't shackle you either. To quote Bruce Lee "Man is constantly growing, and when he is bound by a set pattern of ideas or ‘Way’ of doing things, that’s when he stops growing." On the subject of Gould his touch is very fussy (although characteristic) and his humming can be frustrating at times. I prefer Perahia's Bach
- PostPlummer 6y ago
  > When you reach mastery you will usually end up breaking most rules. This is so true, and expands wildly beyond the area of mastery. I was in the fortunate position to be able to spend days with numerous world class piano masters, both during rehearsals, dinner & regular daily activities and was always impressed with their "breaking of rules" both on and off stage. Some do this completely natural (Lazar Berman, who picked his performance piano within one minute "You have to understand, picking out a piano is like picking out a partner, you feel within seconds if you like her or not." ) with others it felt more like an act (not going to write her name, but she insisted to have a friend turn the sheet music, who was not able to read music and thus was either too slow or fast and she had to swiftly flip to the correct pages while performing...). The more mechanical piano players where never really my thing. I love the players with their own style and interpretations & personal particularities (Lazar Berman again: Bring me to some cheap shops, I get tired of all the fancy places people take me all the time."). Critics are often not so much into that, however. So the number of "rule breakers" was always limited to a maximum of something like 20%.
ipiz0618 6y ago
This reminded me of the (in)famous remark of Bernstein before he performed with Glenn Gould the Brahms Piano Concerto (also mentioned in the article): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWPM783TOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWPM783TOE He was so insistent on his own interpretation, that even one of the best regarded conductors in the world couldn't convince him otherwise. After many years the "unusually" slow tempo doesn't sound so extreme, and to me even preferable. Glenn Gould was incredible in terms of his musical understanding. Maybe that's why his Bach was phenomenal because he could bring out the multiple layers as much as he liked, and even improvising new voices in his humming at times. If anyone is interested in Brahms Piano Concertos, I also recommend Gilels' performances, which remain the best in my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYzBCk_tm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYzBCk_tm4
kkylin 6y ago
Thank you, that was wonderful. Despite being a fan of Gould for man years, I had not seen this before.

by v64 6y ago

dharma1 6y ago

this one is my favourite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rywN8MoiEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rywN8MoiEk ;)

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
Strangely enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQ_6r8EvUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQ_6r8EvUw
siltpotato 6y ago
So odd! I saw the URL gray and thought it was a Rickroll, but didn't see the familiar dQw. Apparently that's from when I was looking for DX7 videos.

mykowebhn 6y ago

I think it's also good to point out that Gould did not play the piano with curved fingers, as is mostly taught in the West. He played using a flat-fingered approach, taught to him by his teacher Alberto Guerrero. Interestingly, the tendency to keep one's fingers flat was also taught in the Russian school [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru9FDvUfz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru9FDvUfz4

yomly 6y ago

When you reach mastery you will usually end up breaking most rules. For starters, rules are meant to be one size fits all, but every body is unique which leads to different biomechanics. I knew a pianist who played Grieg concerto at the BBC Proms but she could barely stretch an octave. How she could play all the Chopin etudes from age 9 blows my mind. Speaking of Chopin his first teacher wasn't much of a pianist and realised Chopin's ceiling was far greater than his own so left him to his own devices wrt technique. Chopin ended up unlocking new techniques on the keyboard which he crystallised in the etudes. He essentially wrote them for himself. You will see rule breaking common amongst masters of a skill. In fight sports some of the best boxers have all kinds of bad habits - Inoue Naoya doing massive wind ups and Muhammad Ali dropping his hands. The rules are there to help us reach mastery but they shouldn't shackle you either. To quote Bruce Lee "Man is constantly growing, and when he is bound by a set pattern of ideas or ‘Way’ of doing things, that’s when he stops growing." On the subject of Gould his touch is very fussy (although characteristic) and his humming can be frustrating at times. I prefer Perahia's Bach

PostPlummer 6y ago
> When you reach mastery you will usually end up breaking most rules. This is so true, and expands wildly beyond the area of mastery. I was in the fortunate position to be able to spend days with numerous world class piano masters, both during rehearsals, dinner & regular daily activities and was always impressed with their "breaking of rules" both on and off stage. Some do this completely natural (Lazar Berman, who picked his performance piano within one minute "You have to understand, picking out a piano is like picking out a partner, you feel within seconds if you like her or not." ) with others it felt more like an act (not going to write her name, but she insisted to have a friend turn the sheet music, who was not able to read music and thus was either too slow or fast and she had to swiftly flip to the correct pages while performing...). The more mechanical piano players where never really my thing. I love the players with their own style and interpretations & personal particularities (Lazar Berman again: Bring me to some cheap shops, I get tired of all the fancy places people take me all the time."). Critics are often not so much into that, however. So the number of "rule breakers" was always limited to a maximum of something like 20%.

ipiz0618 6y ago

This reminded me of the (in)famous remark of Bernstein before he performed with Glenn Gould the Brahms Piano Concerto (also mentioned in the article): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWPM783TOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWPM783TOE He was so insistent on his own interpretation, that even one of the best regarded conductors in the world couldn't convince him otherwise. After many years the "unusually" slow tempo doesn't sound so extreme, and to me even preferable. Glenn Gould was incredible in terms of his musical understanding. Maybe that's why his Bach was phenomenal because he could bring out the multiple layers as much as he liked, and even improvising new voices in his humming at times. If anyone is interested in Brahms Piano Concertos, I also recommend Gilels' performances, which remain the best in my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYzBCk_tm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYzBCk_tm4

kkylin 6y ago

Thank you, that was wonderful. Despite being a fan of Gould for man years, I had not seen this before.