4 ms·

In the Vicinity of Genius

25 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

jancsika 6y ago
There's a great clip of Gould spinning these golden yarns around a performance by Richter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iUdM5k5Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iUdM5k5Hc What I love about that clip is how Richter succinctly calls bullshit on Gould. He's not an artistic archetype for being in communication with the composer or whatever-- he's just playing a piece in a way that Gould happened to like. I feel like social media today is tens of millions of Goulds spinning personalized yarns for tens of millions of Gould sycophants. And exactly zero Richters to reply, "What you just read is probably not true."
- motohagiography 6y ago
  I've collected a lot of Gould's recordings over the years, but I never heard him interviewed or speak. I can see how Richter influenced him later in life, and Richter seems like the superior artist. There's a depth of soul that reminds me of Arthur Rubinstein. Gould's version of that anglo-Canadian accent is funny to hear again. We used to call it the National Theatre School accent. The CBC did one of their tedious hit pieces on it calling it 'Canadian dainty," but it has more cultural depth than the ceeb would give it. Gould may have seemed like a cartoon genius from a cultural backwater, affecting the reflected tropes of things he aspired to be, but still nobody has done Bach like him since. There are some pretty versions here and there, but I still think he set the bar. The whole national treasure preciousness around him is irritating, but for all his flaws, he understood what he was doing.
  - kkylin 6y ago
    I've been listening to Gould's Beethoven sonata recordings lately. I don't like all of them, and some of them I even find a little irritating. But there's something new and fresh in many of them (even the ones I ended up not liking). Same with his writing -- even when I disagree with every word, there's always something new and very often thought-provoking.
    - TigeriusKirk 6y ago
      His Beethoven drives me crazy. It feels like he drains all the turgid drama that Beethoven requires for me. But he's transcendental for Bach, and virtually the only way I like Mozart keyboard pieces.
      - kkylin 6y ago
        Interesting! The Beethoven recordings that I like best (e.g., Moonlight, Tempest, Pathetique) don't feature unusual interpretations; in fact they're by-the-book in a certain sense, which I really like. I don't have any of his Mozart recordings. I'll have to look for them.
  - Slow_Hand 6y ago
    Well funnily you still have never heard him speak. The video description mentions that Gould had to be overdubbed with someone else’s voice because his original English language audio had been tossed out. The video is from a Russian TV program that had dubbed him in Russia and had no use for the original audio.
    - motohagiography 6y ago
      So that was probably a soviet propaganda video using Gould to elevate one of their own artists by using an official western genius as credibility? Plausible, consistent with Canada's role as the mark in the cold war, and hilarious. The way Richter played did seem to have more pathos than Gould's quirkery.
lcuff 6y ago
There is a delicious film called "Thirty two short films about Glenn Gould" which is a must for the curious. A brilliant piece of film-making about a quirky genius. It is 32 short films, each 2 to 6 minutes long as I recall. Available on Amazon, I lucked into seeing it on the big screen years ago when it first came out.

25 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

There's a great clip of Gould spinning these golden yarns around a performance by Richter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iUdM5k5Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iUdM5k5Hc What I love about that clip is how Richter succinctly calls bullshit on Gould. He's not an artistic archetype for being in communication with the composer or whatever-- he's just playing a piece in a way that Gould happened to like. I feel like social media today is tens of millions of Goulds spinning personalized yarns for tens of millions of Gould sycophants. And exactly zero Richters to reply, "What you just read is probably not true."

motohagiography 6y ago
I've collected a lot of Gould's recordings over the years, but I never heard him interviewed or speak. I can see how Richter influenced him later in life, and Richter seems like the superior artist. There's a depth of soul that reminds me of Arthur Rubinstein. Gould's version of that anglo-Canadian accent is funny to hear again. We used to call it the National Theatre School accent. The CBC did one of their tedious hit pieces on it calling it 'Canadian dainty," but it has more cultural depth than the ceeb would give it. Gould may have seemed like a cartoon genius from a cultural backwater, affecting the reflected tropes of things he aspired to be, but still nobody has done Bach like him since. There are some pretty versions here and there, but I still think he set the bar. The whole national treasure preciousness around him is irritating, but for all his flaws, he understood what he was doing.
- kkylin 6y ago
  I've been listening to Gould's Beethoven sonata recordings lately. I don't like all of them, and some of them I even find a little irritating. But there's something new and fresh in many of them (even the ones I ended up not liking). Same with his writing -- even when I disagree with every word, there's always something new and very often thought-provoking.
  - TigeriusKirk 6y ago
    His Beethoven drives me crazy. It feels like he drains all the turgid drama that Beethoven requires for me. But he's transcendental for Bach, and virtually the only way I like Mozart keyboard pieces.
    - kkylin 6y ago
      Interesting! The Beethoven recordings that I like best (e.g., Moonlight, Tempest, Pathetique) don't feature unusual interpretations; in fact they're by-the-book in a certain sense, which I really like. I don't have any of his Mozart recordings. I'll have to look for them.
- Slow_Hand 6y ago
  Well funnily you still have never heard him speak. The video description mentions that Gould had to be overdubbed with someone else’s voice because his original English language audio had been tossed out. The video is from a Russian TV program that had dubbed him in Russia and had no use for the original audio.
  - motohagiography 6y ago
    So that was probably a soviet propaganda video using Gould to elevate one of their own artists by using an official western genius as credibility? Plausible, consistent with Canada's role as the mark in the cold war, and hilarious. The way Richter played did seem to have more pathos than Gould's quirkery.

lcuff 6y ago

There is a delicious film called "Thirty two short films about Glenn Gould" which is a must for the curious. A brilliant piece of film-making about a quirky genius. It is 32 short films, each 2 to 6 minutes long as I recall. Available on Amazon, I lucked into seeing it on the big screen years ago when it first came out.