Added: 3 years ago
From: anfalagu
Views: 39,611
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (100)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Hmm. In the piano parts, where Gould plays, the tempo has some potential, perhaps. But the orchestral parts seem messy, uneven, and sluggish to me, like the orchestra members did not yet have the tempo in their mind heart and bones, the way Gould did. I feel like Gould had an idea in his head, for which this performance was just a rough draft. I don't think it's fair to judge his vision as good or bad without hearing a more polished version.

  • The tempo is just amazing! It gives every listener a wonderful and rare opportunity to hear and savor the notes, the melodies and counter melodies that Brahms employed in the piano part and also the counterpoints between soloist and orchestra. I've never heard this concerto played like this and it's just so amazing, it's a revelation. In my ignorance I never thought that a Gould-Bernstein collaboration could be possible at all. It may be true with Karajan though.

  • Wilhelm Kempff is a perfect case study of using moderate tempi on colossal works which are normally played by pianists for virtuosic exhibitions. Kempff kept a steady and moderately slow tempi in his Beethoven and Schubert sonatas which really makes the music 'listenable' and the melodies come out like characters in a play making vivid appearances. Gould in his unpredictable part, made a trailblazing move here with his preferred tempi for this concerto and it's really beautifully done.

  • Was this the Apr 6 1962 concert with the NY Phil?

  • Coughing people SHOULD NOT BE in concert halls. Stay home and take care of yourselves first. Please.

  • At this tempo, one can really hear the counterpoint at 3:23. Beautiful!

  • Might as well get rid of the studio monitors for this one and listen to it through some crappy radio speakers. Gould's humming is one thing, the disrespectful sounds of people coughing up their lungs is just awful. How hard is it to cover your mouth... really...

  • why didn't they give antibiotics to the ones that were coughing?

  • OMFG

    stop coughing

  • it's a lack of respect to be coughing like that, spoiling the performance, why don't they just leave the theatre?

  • dang it, must the new yorkers never stop coughing?!

  • What's this talk about coughing? I was too busy listening to good music.

  • @yoshimitsu200 would love to hear it without all the coughing racket

  • cough cough

  • I was particularly moved by the second coughing section.

  • @max31416was it a benefit concert for influenza patients?

  • @SirWWW No. But there was a 50% discount for terminal smokers.

  • As good as any ever recorded.TY anfalagu for posting.

  • blablabla

  • I find everything absolutely right and so much more Brahms in this tempo!! The first entry of the piano has a wonderful singing quality, one hears all of a sudden how beautiful the section starting at 6:53 is - like in the e minor cello sonata! - and many other things! No, for me there isn't one single thing that sounds "too slow" here!

  • A definite, clear and without the shadow of a doubt "thumbs up" from me!

    Glenn Gould simply took very seriously, unlike so many, what Brahms himself wrote above the first movement: MAESTOSO! And he is not the only one to have taken this point of view! Claudio Arrau said very clearly, in context with the first movement of this concerto: "It is a mistake to confuse fastness with passion. In music that is meant to be played slowly, fastness is the contrary of passion. (to be continued)

  • Wait until you listen to a recording of Ravel's Pavanne by S. Richter, before you complain again about coughings and surrounding noises! lol

  • To all you Gould haters commenting on this: lol u mad broskies?

  • Good lord, the coughing ruins this beautiful piece.

  • They were both, without any doubt, great performers, that's the only reason why one can accept this 'strange performance'.

  • This was a very controversial performance, given Bernstein's rather bizarre, rambling remarks before the performance. The performance itself is also bizarre, if not totally incompetent.

  • Comment removed

  • @QMPhilosophe It's good our opinions are subjective. How in all the World can we ever attempt to measure a true genius' interpretation of a Master's work?

    If art was ever left to lay in the hands of critics, I think nothing would ever come to fruition. Thank God (or whomever...) that most true artists are far too deep in their own World to ever pay any heed to the whims of those who cannot do but criticize. And I surely never thought I'd see "Incompetent" and Gould in the same sentence.

  • The orchestral introduction is grotesquely unmusical and coarsely played; everything Gould played sounded like the way he played Bach, and his grotesque mumbling and singing along is juevnile; the audience is the worst of all, coughing incessantly; they should have all been shot. I NEVER want to hear this again!

  • @billyguns2

    So, if the performance is so awful, why is it a problem that the audience is coughing through it? Seems to me that that would only be a problem with a performance that you considered worth hearing.

  • @billyguns2 lol

  • What a wonder symphony of coughing

  • @cerberusdest Seriously...

  • WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS AUDIENCE?!?!?! im a smoker too but WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!

  • As far as I'm concerned, the piano entrance is perfectly phrased - senza rubato - better than any other pianist out there. Sometimes, straighforward playing works better than all the contrived attempts at manipulating the rhythm. Bravo Glenn!!!

  • The opening seemed vaguely like the opening of Rachmaninoff's first symphony. Or maybe it's just me.

  • These peoples are coughting on one of the most important page of the history of music - stfu smokers! And go home!

  • Did the audience all have TB? Probably all smokers. Wonderful passionate performance, can hear so much more detail with the more gracious tempo Apart from the bloody coughing of course.

  • Hmm... I've heard many things about this "infamous" interpretation, but the only possible problem is that some may consider it slow. Depends on how you interpret "Maestoso"

    Well, I'm wrong. There is one more problem... People cough so much!

  • Another classic "one and only" Gould performance of a particular composer's repertoire is his Mozart concerto #24 in c minor. Also somewhat slower tempi than usual, but also attention to the counterpoint (as in the Brahms) that reveals the brilliance of the composition, which so many other artists miss. I've not found any complete recordings on the internet, but here's a comparison between Gould's 1958 record & Perahia's 30 years later

  • LOL What is the deal with classical music audiences??

    Anyways, I'm usually not all that sympathetic to "unorthodox" interpretations, but this is really nice.

  • “You are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms D minor Concerto,” Bernstein began, “a performance distinctly different from any I’ve ever heard, or even dreamt of for that matter, in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms’s dynamic indications.”

  • I hate live recordings of classical music, but I had to hear this. I could strangle the rude audience coughing - probably deliberate

  • @luridplanet Fifty years ago, all live radio concerts had a background of audience coughing. I remember listening to one and asking my father why the people went to the concert if they were sick. He explained they weren't really sick; they had "smoker's cough", and since so many people smoked, coughing was quite normal. I'd forgotten how bad it was until I heard this recording. Back then, we just got used to it. It's like living near a highway. After a while, you don't even hear the traffic .

  • @luridplanet Interesting theory, that the coughing is deliberate. Makes one wonder... I must say I've never heard anything like it. That goes for the coughing and the interpretation (which I find very convincing).

  • Jesus was this recorded during the black death? All the bloody coughing's ruining it. Stupid, selfish prats.

  • This honestly doesn't seen THAT slow to me, compared to the ponderous performances I hear of Brahms these days... I was expecting this to be much more scandalous.

  • I love the slow tempi. Gould's devotional commitment to counterpoint expresses a characteristic of Brahms' composition that faster treatments and less contrapuntally oriented artists miss.

  • @citzie well put

  • @citzie Yeah that's true. I never realized how masterful Brahms' counterpoint was until now. That's *really* cool to me.

  • I am sure that young Johannes was every bit as petulant as Glenn Gould!

  • Great collection of Brahms images. I think he would classify as one of the half dozen or so greatest musical creators in Western music. All of his music is wonderful but early Brahms piano works are particularly unique, if not as developed as later works.

  • Thank you for posting this, I am hearing this after listening to the introductory remarks. Interesting pictures too..Glenn Gould is not conventional and for some time i just liked him playing Bach but the more I listen to it the more i enjoy it now

  • amazing!

  • Comment removed

  • glenn gould è ridicolo!! Peccato! Suona così bene orlando gibbons o bird

  • cough cough cough... GO HOME!!!!!

  • Great post, thank you, very interesting!

  • If you coud verify, you'd notice this performance of the 1st Brahms Concerto is not slower than the Zimerman-Bernstein one. The (very big) difference is that Gould manteins the tempo till the end, while KZ uses little tempo variations in the various sections of the piece.

    LB told the audience he did'nt agree with the "very slow" tempi of "Mr. Gould", but that he identified him as such a valuable artist that he accepted to conduct the concert. GG did totally agree LB spoke to the public.

  • Has anyone mentioned Gould's comment after this performance? He said, "I was feeling very baroque".

    Bernstein announced that he did not agree with the tempi before the performance. But he said he defended Gould's right to play it this way.

    i don't think they ever performed together again after this concert

  • I can't agree with the tempo here but I can say that I generally love the collaborations between these two great artists. Check out their Beethoven 4 performance. It's wonderful and unothodox and you get to hear what a bad hummer Gould was. It's my favorite actually

  • Bernstein found this really too slow. He started a performance in NY ( im not sure of the place), talking to the audience " it's not my fault, i don't agree with the tempo you will hear, so don't blame me" or something like that. ^^

  • He told the audience that he assumed no responsibility for what they were about to hear, since Gould insisted on playing it at half the indicated tempo.

  • Intresting, is it possible to get somehow the other recording of this piece made by Gould & Peter Adler?

  • (end) first you don't know personaly the composer's vision, secondly when you happen to listen to the composer performing, often you find actually that his performance is not that appealing !!

    Music happens between you and what you hear , not with something else in between...

    as for many things actually in life...

  • what's the hell with tempi ? too fast, too slow...what do you mean ?

    I love Walter and Horowitz, I love Bernstein and Gould, for many different reasons....

    Just listen to the music.... and feel...

    We are listening to "Masters" who were deeply involved oin their Art with faith and conviction !!

    Then you feel whether you appreciate or not this or that performance, but please stop saying it should be played like this, or "the composer wanted this ".

  • @brunoparis12 Absolutely!!! If great pieces of music were only interpreted one way, this World would be an extremely melancholy and tedious place. I think the suicide rate the World over would greatly increase. And I know I'd be nothing more than dead weight, with an extra hole in my head.

  • It's interesting this way but yes, too slow?...i think bernstein addressed the audience about the difference of opinion he and mr.Gould had on this point.None the less.....Gould is allowed and Lenny respected that and went along with this funeral march tempo. This concerto was disliked at it's premiere for it's cold wintery blasts and Brahmsian sterness....it is sublime though.

  • Gould was doing a good job until about 4:30.

    sorry, I could not resist saying that :D I enjoyed it.

  • Purists be damned.

    Besides, if this was Bernstein conducting 20 years later he would have taken it even slower and just as majestically.

  • It sounds like the audience is dying. I sincerely hope they weren't trying to get on to the recording. If someone is that bad they should leave, no matter how MUCH they may have paid for the ticket. Shame because I love this interpretation

  • Those coughing assholes!

  • PS. Maestoso can be slow. There is no rules about the tempo of Maestoso. As long as it is "dignified and majestic", it works. So there is actually nothing wrong with this "twice as slow" tempo.

  • Ah, so this is the infamous "twice as slow" Brahms performance. Actually sounds interesting LOL

  • Is he playing in an hospital? Jesus Christ they are making noises all the time,if i were Gould i would have stopped to play and went away.I have never heard something terrible  like in this hall!! Stupids who go to concerts with cough are to be cast out,really!

  • What's with all of the coughing and sneezing, did EVERYONE in the audience have a goddamn cold? Brilliant interpretation. Won't replace my Richter and Rubinstein recordings, but I will definitely enjoy coming back to this one.

  • What a waste of beautiful music. Thanks for posting. A great lesson in how Interesting and Great Music don't always mix

  • where's the speach?

  • thank god for gould and his ilk-who wants to listen to infinite museum pieces,innovation and experiment are the life blood of true musical culture,this is great,many thanks

  • I don't care how much everybody worships Gould. I think this wasn't good interpretation.

    With classical music, unless it is specified, you're not really supposed to be innovative. That's why the composer writes dynamics, tempos, etc. To convey what they want in their music. It's not so you can just throw it out the window and do it however you feel like.

    I'll stick with Rubinstein.

  • did you know that the dynamics, tempos and the like oftentimes are written in by the editors and publishers of the scores. For instance, Bach had never written in such stuff, and in order to get one like that (the original, more or less) you have to look for it especially.

  • Bach did, in fact, write dynamics in for himself. Just not as often and specific as classical composers and, even more, romantic composers.

  • Bach did actually use dynamics in some of his works, though rarely. Any WORTHY edition will make it clear that any added dynamics, tempo indications, etc. are just that...added by the editor as they would with any composers' work. But if you're using Schirmer for Bach then I suppose you may think it's the norm for publisher/editor additions.

  • As for Gould, he wasn't just anybody off the street who just decided to maim the great works. He had a special gift, and wasnt going to apologize for it just to conform to "the standard". He was out of the box, the BOX that classical music has been put into. Lenny worked hard on letting the classical music out of its cage as well.

  • gould actually plays this at normal tempo in a baltimore concert, but the recording was never officially released.

  • Slow, fast, doesn't matter. The most important is create one new interpretation. We have here two great musicians, all that cames after this is inspiration.

  • For regular listening, I don't care for this performance. But every once in a while it's good to listen to to be able to pick out details overlooked in a "normal" performance. For all Gould's eccentricities, he made you listen to familiar pieces with new ears.

  • Yeah, is there no way you can repost it with Bernstein's introductory comments? Thanks for posting anyway though!

  • Too bad you left out Bernstein's introductory remarks!

  • @weikko79 

  • Respond to this video...The introductory remarks can be at: youtube.com/watch?v=4gs3TeEUy8­g

  • wow, the tempo is slow as hell.

  • Breathtaking performance. The passion for the music, the soul - beautiful.

  • btw so lovely those [your] pix thank you!

  • superb!!------>brahms all three mouvements in one impulse....very artistical:)

  • Bellissima interpretazione !!

  • eccezionale .......... 10 ++++++

  • Thanks for sharing!

Loading...
Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more