The amazing thing about Gould is that he manages, on an instrument with only one keyboard and no stops, to find a unique and different touch for each voice, keeping them clear and distinct, and at the same time making it all sound beautiful and natural. Sweelinck would have died for a modern piano, and this is how he would have liked to hear it played. The comparison with "500-voice choirs" is silly: big choirs make a fuzzy sound, while this is a model of clarity.
I seek out early music performances, and this is extraordinary. A piece of baroque classicism with clarity, drive, and expression that would have thrilled audiences around 1600 (or any other time). And an insightful lesson in music history demonstrating the relationship of the concert grand piano to early, small scale instruments like the harpsichord and lute.
Probably, the worst "musician" ever recorded. Not to mention his constant weaving and bobbing around and humming along while he plays. "Hum along with Glenn Gould" should have been one of his albums. Early 17th Century music played on a grand piano. Yeah! That's what Sweelinck was anticipating. Why not play Louis Armstrong or Jelly Roll Morton on an Arp Schnitger organ from the 17 the Century too? That would be "authentic."
@NorbertZF GG melts faces. you only don't like it because you do not even understand what he is doing. he takes original masterpieces of the baroque era and others and adds a sense of romanticism and freedom in his playing that was not conceived of when the pieces were originally written. if you want to hear an authentic rendition of music from this era then go find yourself an organist or harpsichordist. thanks!
@NorbertZF Ship me, then, somewhere East of Suez, where the best is like the worst. You can't stand it. Glenn escaped the sadistic brutality of classical performance and this burns your ass.
GG was a certifiable mental case who used to hum along to himself while he "played" and wobbled back and forth on his custom little piano stool. THAT'S what you value as a performance? Fine! No one is stopping you from wasting your time. You are not a musician, never studied early music performance practices and you don't anything about what you speak of. To each his own. BTW, I have some GG records myself. I use them for skeet shooting.
@NorbertZF No brutalized and uncultured "professional musician" can use his "expertise", especially if he's a yokel ("skeet shooting") trained by other pretentious yokels in some rural shithole, to tell us what to like.
There's no such thing as "expertise" or "authenticity" in musical performance that can be reduced to a formula. Most decent composers were in their time sick to death of actual early music practices which included poorly maintained instruments and bone ignorant singers.
No such thing as "expertise" eh? Then what makes you think that you're so damn smart??? Anything you say Charley. I'm REALLY not interested in your incoherent rants and ravings! NO REPLY NEEDED NOR WANTED! COMPRENDE???
@NorbertZF Then why is Gould famous? That question just puts everything you said as invalid. And yes, Gould was (and is) as famous as pianists like Horowitz, Rubinstein, Argerich and whoever you like.
Gould was, what used to be termed, an "idiot savant." He could only do one thing very well and nothing else. Yes, his playing is "technically" perfect but there is no musicianship or artistry. "Famous?" What does that mean exactly? HItler was/is still famous. So is Bozo the Clown. You're equating "famous" with being correct.
Regardless, if you want to keep listening to the likes of Gould, Stokowski, Landowska, that's your life wasted : not mine. BYE!
No, man. Gould put his soul into it. Listen with your heart next time. Does your heart chakra activate well enough for you to feel higher emotions at will? Mine does. And scientists found that there are neuronal-like structures in the heart and in the lower abdomen. together with my experience and utilization of psychic abilities, which is usually sporadic, I can tell that Gould was passionate and it shows in the artistic emotions portrayed here in this recording
@NorbertZF A pianist rarely, if not at all, becomes well known and continues to be heard 30 years after his death if he isn't good. I don't listen to the other two, and,I really like listening to him playing music.After all, it is a matter of taste. It's just that you're looking at the matter from a more subjective point of view than me.
If you listen to Gould because it's a "matter of taste", then that's being subjective. I don't listen to him because of ALL that we've learned since the days of Arnold Dolmetsch about "early music" and how it's supposed to be played. One reason why Bach cantatas are no longer performed with a choir of 500 voices. You like Gould?
Fine. To each his own. I'll listen to Leonhardt, Tilney, Wooley, Eggar, Kenneth Gllbert, Koopman, etc.
@NorbertZF How it spozed to be played? Why? Bach didn't demand that slobs without talent should perform his works, he agreed to it in the absence of a choice. Slobs without talent, without duende, without creativity want little slob rules so that they can get little slob jobs and do little slob things, none of which here have anything to do with music.
Aaron Copland remarked that he rarely saw an orchestra member carrying a book about music. All they cared about was a secure job.
Anything you say Nimrod. BTW, please come down from Mt. Olympus sometime and PLEEZ tell the rest of poor slob mortals what it's like to be a "god": all knowing and all powerful. *ROFLMAO*
@NorbertZF Sir, you shoot people down because you don't agree with their taste? Get off your viola da gamba high horse. Music doesn't belong to any one person or style. You can take your Quantz treatises and shove them up your sackbut. LOL
@NorbertZF One thing well and nothing else? Absurd. Not only did he master all of the classical repertory, from Sweelinck here to 20th century music, he was also an author. His only mistake in the eyes of the typically brutalized and ignorant classical music student was to flip off the pompous rich thugs who destroy weaker souls and make them into performing monkeys.
I sure wish Sony would release all of the Glenn Gould Video Collection from CBC and elsewhere on DVD asap! This song kicks behind. I love the it builds upon itself then eventually becomes scales over chromatic fun. I'd love to play this song!
Amazing how sometimes you lack in one area of life, but sooo make up for it in another. Some people say he was a quack, but I beg to differ!! Awesome expressionism displayed here!
this for me is really a relieve after a exhausting day. Extremely beautiful rhytmics. I am playing some pieces of Sweelinck on the lute. His works have a long lasting quality I think.
The amazing thing about Gould is that he manages, on an instrument with only one keyboard and no stops, to find a unique and different touch for each voice, keeping them clear and distinct, and at the same time making it all sound beautiful and natural. Sweelinck would have died for a modern piano, and this is how he would have liked to hear it played. The comparison with "500-voice choirs" is silly: big choirs make a fuzzy sound, while this is a model of clarity.
gspaulsson 4 months ago
Great!
FurutayoshimotoAgon 1 year ago
I seek out early music performances, and this is extraordinary. A piece of baroque classicism with clarity, drive, and expression that would have thrilled audiences around 1600 (or any other time). And an insightful lesson in music history demonstrating the relationship of the concert grand piano to early, small scale instruments like the harpsichord and lute.
richardjohnraymond 1 year ago
Echt Goud van Oud .... Sweelinck door Gould.
morimondo1 1 year ago
Probably, the worst "musician" ever recorded. Not to mention his constant weaving and bobbing around and humming along while he plays. "Hum along with Glenn Gould" should have been one of his albums. Early 17th Century music played on a grand piano. Yeah! That's what Sweelinck was anticipating. Why not play Louis Armstrong or Jelly Roll Morton on an Arp Schnitger organ from the 17 the Century too? That would be "authentic."
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF GG melts faces. you only don't like it because you do not even understand what he is doing. he takes original masterpieces of the baroque era and others and adds a sense of romanticism and freedom in his playing that was not conceived of when the pieces were originally written. if you want to hear an authentic rendition of music from this era then go find yourself an organist or harpsichordist. thanks!
Omnichronicles 1 year ago
@Omnichronicles
Anything you say. Whatever. To each his own.
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF
Although it doesn't take psychic abilities to see and hear the soul in his playing here. Not dissing anyone else.
MaBu888 1 year ago
@NorbertZF Ship me, then, somewhere East of Suez, where the best is like the worst. You can't stand it. Glenn escaped the sadistic brutality of classical performance and this burns your ass.
spinoza1111 1 year ago
@spinoza1111
GG was a certifiable mental case who used to hum along to himself while he "played" and wobbled back and forth on his custom little piano stool. THAT'S what you value as a performance? Fine! No one is stopping you from wasting your time. You are not a musician, never studied early music performance practices and you don't anything about what you speak of. To each his own. BTW, I have some GG records myself. I use them for skeet shooting.
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF No brutalized and uncultured "professional musician" can use his "expertise", especially if he's a yokel ("skeet shooting") trained by other pretentious yokels in some rural shithole, to tell us what to like.
There's no such thing as "expertise" or "authenticity" in musical performance that can be reduced to a formula. Most decent composers were in their time sick to death of actual early music practices which included poorly maintained instruments and bone ignorant singers.
spinoza1111 1 year ago
@spinoza1111
No such thing as "expertise" eh? Then what makes you think that you're so damn smart??? Anything you say Charley. I'm REALLY not interested in your incoherent rants and ravings! NO REPLY NEEDED NOR WANTED! COMPRENDE???
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF Then why is Gould famous? That question just puts everything you said as invalid. And yes, Gould was (and is) as famous as pianists like Horowitz, Rubinstein, Argerich and whoever you like.
CSPlayerDamon 1 year ago
@CSPlayerDamon
Gould was, what used to be termed, an "idiot savant." He could only do one thing very well and nothing else. Yes, his playing is "technically" perfect but there is no musicianship or artistry. "Famous?" What does that mean exactly? HItler was/is still famous. So is Bozo the Clown. You're equating "famous" with being correct.
Regardless, if you want to keep listening to the likes of Gould, Stokowski, Landowska, that's your life wasted : not mine. BYE!
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF
LIFE WASTED? WTF
No, man. Gould put his soul into it. Listen with your heart next time. Does your heart chakra activate well enough for you to feel higher emotions at will? Mine does. And scientists found that there are neuronal-like structures in the heart and in the lower abdomen. together with my experience and utilization of psychic abilities, which is usually sporadic, I can tell that Gould was passionate and it shows in the artistic emotions portrayed here in this recording
MaBu888 1 year ago
@NorbertZF A pianist rarely, if not at all, becomes well known and continues to be heard 30 years after his death if he isn't good. I don't listen to the other two, and,I really like listening to him playing music.After all, it is a matter of taste. It's just that you're looking at the matter from a more subjective point of view than me.
CSPlayerDamon 1 year ago
@CSPlayerDamon
If you listen to Gould because it's a "matter of taste", then that's being subjective. I don't listen to him because of ALL that we've learned since the days of Arnold Dolmetsch about "early music" and how it's supposed to be played. One reason why Bach cantatas are no longer performed with a choir of 500 voices. You like Gould?
Fine. To each his own. I'll listen to Leonhardt, Tilney, Wooley, Eggar, Kenneth Gllbert, Koopman, etc.
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF How it spozed to be played? Why? Bach didn't demand that slobs without talent should perform his works, he agreed to it in the absence of a choice. Slobs without talent, without duende, without creativity want little slob rules so that they can get little slob jobs and do little slob things, none of which here have anything to do with music.
Aaron Copland remarked that he rarely saw an orchestra member carrying a book about music. All they cared about was a secure job.
spinoza1111 1 year ago
@spinoza1111
Anything you say Nimrod. BTW, please come down from Mt. Olympus sometime and PLEEZ tell the rest of poor slob mortals what it's like to be a "god": all knowing and all powerful. *ROFLMAO*
NorbertZF 1 year ago
Comment removed
spinoza1111 1 year ago
@NorbertZF
Do you get it? You abuse this posting privilege and they removed your inane "comment."
Get a life and move on already.
NorbertZF 1 year ago
@NorbertZF Sir, you shoot people down because you don't agree with their taste? Get off your viola da gamba high horse. Music doesn't belong to any one person or style. You can take your Quantz treatises and shove them up your sackbut. LOL
kenkim5 2 months ago
@NorbertZF OMIGOD they removed my comment...
spinoza1111 2 months ago
@NorbertZF It's a tough job, dude but someone's gotta do it. It's lonely at the top.
spinoza1111 2 months ago
@NorbertZF One thing well and nothing else? Absurd. Not only did he master all of the classical repertory, from Sweelinck here to 20th century music, he was also an author. His only mistake in the eyes of the typically brutalized and ignorant classical music student was to flip off the pompous rich thugs who destroy weaker souls and make them into performing monkeys.
spinoza1111 1 year ago
@NorbertZF
As for his swaying and wobbling, I tend to ignore it and almost close my eyes in all the cool.
MaBu888 1 year ago
The art deco surrounding the piano is eerily beautiful.
ClaytonBellmor 1 year ago
I sure wish Sony would release all of the Glenn Gould Video Collection from CBC and elsewhere on DVD asap! This song kicks behind. I love the it builds upon itself then eventually becomes scales over chromatic fun. I'd love to play this song!
machiwoomiapoo 1 year ago
nice - the wonders of YouTube
SirWWW 2 years ago
Amazing how sometimes you lack in one area of life, but sooo make up for it in another. Some people say he was a quack, but I beg to differ!! Awesome expressionism displayed here!
Tonyssongs 2 years ago
I like the sound of the piano and i like the song to.
ryab55 2 years ago
fantastic performance, thank you
INTERNETVID 2 years ago
Who knows, in what edition there are notes of this Fantasia of Sweelink? I would be very grateful for the information.
labium2008 2 years ago
Fantasia in D, nr. 3, Opera Omnia, Vol. 1, Keyboard Works, Fantasias and Toccatas, pag. 19
gijz1963 2 years ago
Comment removed
labium2008 2 years ago
Thanks for uploading this rare performance. It's amazing!
Babejuda 3 years ago
this for me is really a relieve after a exhausting day. Extremely beautiful rhytmics. I am playing some pieces of Sweelinck on the lute. His works have a long lasting quality I think.
thanks for this excellent post.
parfumisme 3 years ago 7
It just occurred to me for the first time that Glenn Gould and Stevie Wonder both rock from side to side similarly.
palcsi 3 years ago 2
Glenn Gould Rocks!
CD318 3 years ago
Thank you!
sofi1506 3 years ago
Much obliged Polyphony, for the Christmas gift. This underlines why, in my opinion, Glenn Gould was an intergalatic certified, unequalled genius.
BalthasarMA 3 years ago
Thanks p0lyph0ny for this nice Christmas present!
northicekate 3 years ago
Gould's playing is pure musical ecstasy!! Oh how we miss his presence here on the physical plane. Thank you Glenn forever and always!!!
todjames 3 years ago 7