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  • Beautiful...

  • Wow, his father's chair certainly stood the test of time, but has definitely grown ragged and worn here. Hats off to ya glenn.

    

  • *Sniff Sniff* I can smell the pseudo-intellectuals, you always find them buzzing around classical music and political videos. Pompous poobags man, pompous poobags.

  • Did It so make me able to behave soften Simile. Thanks.

  • 素晴らしい。。

  • GLen Gould is the true master of fugue and he is ruler of Music at all!

  • Bach wrote the book. The distiller of the essence of musical craft. The culmination of all who preceded him & an influence on all who followed.

  • why did no one tell him to SHUT UP when he plays.

  • @barbiegore21 im sure they did... he didnt care though...

  • I have tremendous respect for Bach, but way Gould plays is really gay, just look at his movements - looks to be having a seizure or something

  • why not harpsichord... argh

  • this is breathtaking 

  • He's a mad monkey. Genius.

  • Ingenious playing!

    Glenn loved polyphonic music - therefore he has to land on the planet Bach. Both in accompany make music just perfect.

  • i loooove gould and the sound he produces but......cmon man why always do you have to do all this faces??and this hand that explodes in 1:00...??if anyone has any reasonably answer why did he do that please comment

  • @thesortsakis

    have you noticed hes almost doing it like a maestro directs a band? it could be a compulsive thing or maybe an emotional one. im not sure.

  • it feels like he's still with us :)

  • Glenn Gould, why God created fingers.

  • Glenn Gould is one, a genius and a thinker with a truly incredible potential given by God. He then worked for himself and to please his egocentric self, which was out of his time. that is why he is so special and incredible any time anyone witnesses him.

  • The best cadence ever at the end!!! so good it's almost ridiculous.

  • the last minute is the most beautiful ending i have ever heard in classical music

  • Assolutamente clamoroso............!!!!!!!!!­!!!

  • Fugues speak to me like no other compositions. That he chose this tempo emphasizes the conversation. Bravo. !

  • How mannered, affected and....vulgar can one get?

  • @lourak, clearly this much

  • @lourak In a heart besotted by cynicism, genuine joy is always derided as "mannered, affected, and....vulgar." Lucky for the rest of us, genuine joy doesn't give a shit about cynical judgments.

  • @erp65 You do me an injustice sir! - and your critique of my comment is frankly pretentious and uninformed. You may have your opinion of the quality of this performance, and of Gould's pianistic abilities - yet one thing is certain: The burden of proof, would clearly be on you and others who tout Gould's greatness. It is uncontroversial, sir, that the overwhelming majority of acknowledged masters of the keyboard considered Gould to be musically eccentric in the extreme. Who is the cynic?

  • @lourak Gould was rated the #2 greatest pianist of the 20th Century in the 2000 issue of (if memory serves) Gramophone, behind Richter. I'll let that fact stand as a retort to your insinuation that other masters of the keyboard downgrade Gould's genius. "Musically eccentric," yes. No argument there. And that's a bad thing?

  • @erp65 Surely you would not want to claim that the readership of a magazine will have the last word on this matter! Notwithstanding a certain kind of technical veracity possessed by Gould - and a certain appeal that his approach has, I think, by sheer dint of its eccentricity - I remain with my opinion. From time to time such phenomena appear, that capture public acclaim way out of proportion to their worth. Barack Obama, to cite an even more gross example, is a Nobel Prize winner. 

  • @lourak Well, I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I hear an almost starkly natural simplicity in Gould's interpretations of Bach as compared to almost any other keyboardist. He lets the music flow through him and expresses it perfectly, with no frills or unnecessary touches. "Unadorned power" is a good description of his playing...at least in my opinion. Many other players are actually much more affected to my ears because they deny the expressive potential of Bach with 'HIP'.

  • @lourak Sorry, I didn't see your comment until now (no email was sent for some reason). If you're going to accuse me of "unsupported premises" then you're going to have to "support" your own "premises" that Gould's playing is "mannered, affected and....vulgar". We are arguing opinion here; please do not try to come up with some sort of logical justification for your own to trump mine, because it comes across as incredibly arrogant. You have done nothing but "assert" your opinion yourself.

  • @DevilsInstrument PART 1 - I think it is uncontroversial, that there does exist a normative style in any given genre of classical music - granted, though what is considered stylistically acceptable, does exist within a range - sometimes broad and sometimes narrow. And further, I think it is similarly uncontroversial, that this "range of acceptability" if you will, is determined by acknowledged experts in the field.

  • @DevilsInstrument PART 2 - That said - I think the view of the "experts", pretty universally - is that Gould, for most of his career (there are exceptional performances) stood outside that range. The burden of explaining "unsupported premises". I'm afraid, is yours, sir!

  • @lourak So, your argument is an appeal to authority...on musical taste? No, the burden of proof lies on *you* to say how either of us could be objectively wrong. Why does "acceptability" matter? I'd much rather a performance be interesting and original than "acceptable", which to me implies "bland" or "just going through the motions". And once again, we are down to personal opinion. Backing up taste with other people's taste doesn't make it more 'valid'.

  • @DevilsInstrument Basically, you're saying "anything goes" as far as music goes. This doesn't seem right to me. Surely, you believe in some kind of standard. You'll note, in my comment, that I do speak of a "range" in which acceptable standards can be found - which allows, to an extent, even for a degree of, shall we say, eccentricity. And yes - of course the "experts" and tradition, determine what is normative. My claim, simply, is that Gould stood outside that range.

  • @lourak I am not necessarily saying "anything goes" for any individual opinion; I have my own interpretational "standards", if you like. And your claim is not that "Gould stood outside that range", you claimed for a start that this performance is "mannered, affected and....vulgar" and you seem to equate that with "eccentric". What you are saying is that anything outside of what is "acceptable" is "affected and...vulgar", I guess. Think what you want, but personally I heed no arbiter of taste.

  • @DevilsInstrument PART 1 - Firstly, I stand by my claim that your comment implies that "anything goes"! When you state that you have "your own" interpretational standards" you are saying as much. My standards, good sir, are developed on the basis of what the great interpreters of the past had to say, plus - my own little contribution. Not the other way around.

  • @DevilsInstrument PART 2 - Now - to clairify this point - please read my initial comment more carefully. My characterization of this performance as being vulgar, etc...was limited to THIS PARTICULAR PERFORMANCE - I don't think it was always the case with Gould- eccentric though he was. You can enjoy any performance you like, and even find it exhilarating (as I find many of Gould's performances to be) - but let's not redefine words please.

  • @DevilsInstrument PART 3 - Yes - that which is non-normative, in any domain, often suffers from vulgarity because of the disdain that the performer has for tradition. That, largely, is the meaning of vulgar, mannered, etc...placing the self first, and not subordinating to tradition, which after all, is the only way that culture can survive. But that, sir, is another discussion.

  • anyone who thinks glenn is egocentric and playing to himself- yes he is, but that's what makes his music so great, he plays it the way he wants it sound so it's purely his interpretation. i love glenn gould because his music feels so intimate, so in my opinion he's playing in the best possible way.

  • @annieorigami4 But surely you don't think that merely "playing it the way he wants" automatically gives it interpretive legitimacy?

  • Amazing!

  • Over-articulated my arse.

  • it hard to imagine 79-year-old Gould. but i think he must be greater and nicer person like Horowitz if he was 80 years old.

    Happy Birthday.

  • When I listen to this, I have to remind myself to breathe.

    Happy birthday, Glenn Gould.

  • Ah, Glenn Gould. One of the greatest human beings ever to grace the planet.

    He was born 79 years ago today -- September 25, 1932.

  • GREAT music. Odd performance. Glenn Gould might be feeling" the music, BUT this performance is egocentric. He is playing to himself. Do not try to tell me otherwise. No sense of line or harmony. Over-articulated. Listen to Ton Koopman's version on YouTube.

  • @DainGerrUsss "The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Gould

    Egocentric? Perhaps, but I prefer him to Ton Koopman, oh . . . something must be wrong with me. ಠ_ಠ

  • @paulusvii97 Great quote, but I disagree wholeheartedly that he was egocentric. Glenn was the least pretentious as well as the most completely dedicated musician we've ever had. I wish he'd stayed around longer. If he was still here today I can't even imagine what he would have given us.

  • I have seen many youtube videos of this tv show now, in which glenn is wearing this blue shirt, usually watermarked with arte. does anyone know a source where i could buy a copy of this show? it would be something i would treasure greatly, as it means the world to me. thank you.

  • This interpretation is unique. Its hard to listen to the same piece of music again by other performers without missing the intensity and expression by GG

  • Yes this music is better than 50 cent. Bach never wrote explicit lyrics about f****ing women or killing people. Bach never even imagined he'd be famous, it was simply his job to write music, he was good at it and that's how he supported his family. Most of his music was about praising God. 50 Cent makes his music for fame and money. He starred in a movie called "Get Rich or Die Trying. Bach never inspired young impressionable kids to buy guns and act like gangsters. Yes Bach IS better.

  • @romulo560 The character's name is 50 cent, should he be compared to Bach? However, "he (Bach) always had quite a temper, was no stranger to scraps with his employers, and as a young man he once even managed to get himself into a sword fight." Did the character 50 cent also spend time in jail?

  • @romulo560 how is this even a quiestionable statement? :p

  • I've been trying to say several times what I admire so much about the combination of Glenn Gould and Bach, but everytime I get stuck because there are no words to describe this very odd feeling I get when listening to this combination of very high intellect and the most upright emotions that Glenn Gould puts into his music. Such a loss that he died so early. But better for him, I think.

  • he played this just ... right. I love Bach, and I admire Gould for playing it this way.

  • I LOVE THIS GUY!

  • simplicity in its most natural and beautiful form

  • i would like to say that princessunicorn69 is a stupid racist moron. there is enough room in this word for all music, not to mention music that has been lost and music that has yet to be made. are you sad that you are on the same planet as soulja boy? or that glenn gould's remain are on that planet? grow the fuck up. i prefer this too, but nonetheless - grow the fuck up

  • @johnBsloop you are inferring all the racism. all pu69 is voicing is his/her opinion that soulja boy's music is not as "musical" as bach's. frankly, i feel the same way, and it has absolutely nothing to do with race.

  • Yes, he's a genius, but funny genius anyway :D

  • sublime!!

    

  • His chair is so worn down that there absolutely no padding or fabric. Very strange indeed!

  • Glenn Gould is so passionate, look at the guy move :)

  • esse cara nunca comeu uma mulher, aposto

  • @MrLucas2b e vc aposto q nem come, nem ganha a grana q ele teve, nem toca como ele.. tá pior hein..

  • look at his right foot moving smoothly

  • @lip333 yeah like many great artists he was a bit of an exaggerator (I wouldn't say liar :P ) He DOES use pedals, just very sparingly I suppose, compared to others :P

  • 2:23-2:24 ...

  • BEHOLD THE ULTIMATE MASTER YOU MAGGOTS.

  • @Irshkboy Who Bach or Gould?

  • I've just got to say--the way he strokes that last key = damn sexy!

  • Beautiful piano sound but his chair doesn't fit with such piano. I'm sorry Glenn; hope you're sitted on a better chair today !

  • @Sylvain894 asshole, didn't you know that the GG chair is famous almost like him? Bah...

  • Ohhh! I love him for this!

  • Glenn and his humming!!!!

  • 0:58 ohh, he just couldn't help it. I've felt like that sometimes. Shame I'm not talented.

  • oh le possédé !!

  • perfection

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  • it seema like his making fun of himself

  • love me some gould. the way he strokes the key at the end is great

  • Gould is a crazy genius. That is all.

  • The Famous Chair!:)

  • tired to post, Bach isnt good at piano vers.

  • kinda kooky!!!!!!!!

  • @noelsafont search up "gould talks about e major fugue" and then rethink your opinion. he was definitely weird, but he wasn't insane.

  • @yumeybaconcutout - I mean kooky in a loving way. There is no question that Gould was eccentric and obsessive. Definitely genius.

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  • しばらくわすれられそうにない

  • à regarder et à admirer !!!

  • 100's of cuncurrent fingerstruck note eliciting tiny boundless anyurisms of euphoria....i loves me some gould . Maybe i shouldnt write down anythign about excpet in my mind...well ive siad it anywya and ill say it agian i loves me some gould

  • @KingMinosxxvi You would, old leprechaun!

  • 100's of cuncurrent fingerstruck note eliciting tiny boundless anyurisms of euphoria....i loves me some gould

  • This is simply one of the most profound recordings of any music I have heard at any time.

  • @Cancrizans Isn't it just wonderful

  • This is amazing. No beating E major II when it's played slowly (same with C# minor I.. these are his most soulful fugues and should be treated as such). Still love the WTC recording, dont get me wrong. Something about this one when it's slow though just seems to always get me.

  • @releasethefrogs Not only slowness but also the special articulation and the phrases he chose to bold and the way he phrased everything. Pure genius, I have no words for it. I can't explain what I feel the moment I hear this truly divine performance.

  • @pila406 Can I hear him humming in the background ???

  • Please, where can I find this recording? It's lovelier by far (at 5 mins 5 secs) than the one I've downloaded from iTunes which is 4mins 17 secs long.

    Where is this video archived?

  • I love Gould with all my heart and soul. But, I must say, 1:00 is just outright comical.

  • @mynameisandycostello It's genuine and expressive, and a sign that he has completely internalized this music.

  • @mynameisandycostello - that was hilarious!!!!!!!!

  • @mynameisandycostello Well yea, Gould, at this age, wasn't exactly right in the head. Not saying he was crazy, but he definitely had some mental, let's say, habits, that strained his life quite a bit.

  • @mynameisandycostello - hilarious

  • @mynameisandycostello agreed! hahahah xD well, at least he grabbed our attention a lot!

  • @mynameisandycostello ;prendi un grosso abbaglio scambiando il trasporto(sublime) con comicità!

  • @mynameisandycostello If you didn´t see the way he moved, you wouldn´t notice it on how it sounds.

  • @javierleonenriquez Yes I am aware of this.

  • @mynameisandycostellok, he fucking felt it man, that's all, he lived it.

  • Wow. Try keeping that tempo for all that time in a fugue...amazing. A true metronome.

  • wow, this is cosmic...

  • Ordinarily I don't enjoy Gould's staccato playing, but it's very interesting tome that he plays foreground voices staccato, while playing the background voices legato.

    And he only does it for a brief section.

  • 2:24 ???

  • The version on the 1957 Partitas 5/6 album is the same version that is at the end of the Goldberg Variations 1955 album.

  • bach was influenced by palestrina in this piece

  • beautiful...

  • The best part is 0:59 - 1:03 :)

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  • i have a double cd of this work from colubian legends where could plays all the work of well tempered clavier [bwv 846-893] and it is fantastic !!!!

  • And "they" say Gould plays mechanically. Listen carefully and develop your ears. Gould was a living embodyment and messenger of the spirit of the music of J.S. Bach.

  • This work has to be more than piano work.  This must be good harmony with symphony, I think.

  • beautiful

  • It's sad that this video is on the same website as "Soulja Boy - Birdwalk". I'm sick thinking about it.

  • @tallswede80 Such as Coltrane, Monk & Miles?

  • @zynnetrix

    I would rank Mingus above Monk and Miles as far as jazz goes. But even the best jazz is shallow and degenerate compared to the European composers. Add to that the fact that Bach, for example, had to write with a quill pen, by candle light, had no indoor plumbing, no heat or air conditioning, and still produced vast amounts of music, and we're talking a whole different level of human quality. Miles Davis is a turd floating in Beethoven's outhouse.

  • @PrincessUnicorn69 hey, thats some quality music you're insulting right there! i mean who wouldve thought of watching him do his birdwalk?

  • @PrincessUnicorn69 Hate to talk down here but people should stop thinking this music is somehow better than lady gaga or 50cent, it's not. This kind of mentality has an affinity with racism and making people not want to live together.

    Bach might be a more intellectual music, but it's not better or of a higher class. don't let yourself think you are better than others just because of your taste in music.

  • @tarquin161234 For the sake of argument let's define 'better'.Firstly I would define music as organized sound. I would define 'better' music to be more organized, structured, and complex. Bach's music is vastly more structured and complicated than 50 cent or lady gaga. In this sense it is infinitely better. Listen to lady gaga all you want, there's nothing wrong with that, but implying that lady gaga is as good as Bach is just ridiculous.

  • @tarquin161234 So you think all musical compositions are equal just because each are different from one another? You're a disgrace to the human mind. 

  • @PrincessUnicorn69 I genuinely think that, and am passionate about it because I have often caught myself thinking those thoughts.

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  • I keep meaning to ask, but how do I download this from my iPhone (where I have it in YouTube) to my iPod - also on my iPhone?

  • sublime

  • This is still as lovely as ever, played slowly with feeling. Still haven't learnt it yet and still haven't managed to get it into an mp3 or Audacity. How would I use Audacity?

  • @findbecca1

    if you are using firefox you can get downloadhelper and download the thing in pretty much any format you like

  • @gr0mithtimon

    Thanks for your response. I'm using a Apple Mac so I have Safari. Can I do it from that?

  • @findbecca1

    I dont know if theres something like that for safari, But you can install firefox alongside safari on your mac.. that should work.

  • @findbecca1 Use a program called "OpD2d". Just google it and download it, it's free. Records any audio on your computer to an mp3.

  • is there any praeludium of this?but from 1980?on harpsichord is i think from 1969...I am looking for 1980...

  • wow that really is slow for gould. his other recording is at least 3x as fast.

  • que inicio!!!!! y que magia. aveces hay creaciones de bach que parecen pesadas pero es por culpa de os interpretes que no tiene el espiritu para decifrar la belleza de la obra y esto es una prueba

  • ...can anyone else hear him humming??

  • Goulds tempo does justice to that fugue. Much of its beauty would be lost at a higher speed.

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  • i love his chair =D

  • I wonder if there's a way I can convert this to an mp3 (or similar) so I don't have to access the Internet every time?

  • @findbecca1

    audacity is your friend ;)

  • I wonder if there's a way I can convert this to an mp3 file (or similar) so I don't have to keep accessing the Internet?

  • What could be lovelier than learning to play this version yourself?

  • MinaseSouya -

    Agreed, he did seem to become mellower and more spiritual in his later years (more intense?) leading to what I find more introspective and ecstatic (in a Gouldian sense) music... The best example of this is his Goldberg Var. recordings of 1955 and reinterpretation of 1981. Both spectacular, but the later recording has a more poignant feeling to it (at least to me - I'm sure there are others who would disagree).

  • It sounds so sublime..

    After watching this movie,I notice I have a Gould's CD which contains this fugue. That CD seems to be

    recorded when Gould is young and he plays this piece much faster than this performance. It sounds brisk and fun to listen. But I prefer this later version of recording. It sounds mellowed with age and spiritual.

    Gould of ripe years seems to find something ,which he didn't see in his youth, in this piece.

  • Gould has recorded this fugue with at least 3 different tempos.... one on his Sony WTC records (rather quick), one that was released with his original Goldberg Variations recording (a Sony reissue I believe - slow, but not quite this slow), and this one... all Gouldian perfection.

    pureaKero - what exactly do you mean by articulation 'gimmicks'?

  • Gould is great, he gives more purpose to this "absolute music" than anyone can ever hope to.

  • Wow , suddenly , this makes life just that bit more bareable :D , its music like this we truly live for isnt it

    Thanks for posting

  • I will probably get a lot of thumbs down for this.... but here goes! I am currently playing this piece right now and I find this tempo (maybe a bit faster) really suits the piece, but this interpretation is a bit much. Gould pounds out the strettos (B major section), there are a lot or articulation 'gimmicks', (especially in the C# minor section) and the voicing is off at a lot of points (especially in the last section). His approach to form is superb though!

  • @pureaKero Hmm , you have a point , and I can't deny that. But an interesting coincidance is the fact that the other day , in a recital someone played this fugue without the emphasis on strettos or exaggerated articualtion - and it sort of lost its shape and purpose as a fugue - if you can understand me. Now I would be inclined to agree with you in some area's but I think its a good interpretation - and this fugue is nasty to interpret it isnt , for me at least the typical bach fugue

  • I agree with you on the last point. This fugue is one of the least 'pianistic' fugues in the set, it's in the stile antico and seems more suited for a choir. Still I think their is a way to shape the fugue without exaggerating it's features. Letting the voices 'breathe' before each entry, accentuating large intervals, changing the tone in the minor sections, etc... it is a challenging fugue to play properly, and although Gould's interpretation is good, I would suggest Edwin Fischer's instead!

  • @pureaKero Yes , I know and that it is one of its main problems - in many ways I could hear it being turned into a part of one of Bach's cantas , still its a wonderful piece that I enjoy listening to every time I hear it - you should hear the organs interpretation of this ; I think we could both agree that it was dreadful!

  • @sailingforde04 You are right! His organ interpretation is quite odd, still it's refreshing to see an artist willing to try different things with the music... even if sometimes the end product becomes something less than desirable!

  • @pureaKero Well I am an organist first and foremost - but I play bach in the traditional way. Although my friends accuse me of being too pro-establishment , I think the way the likes of Virgil Fox play bach is far to modernistic , the lack of refinment that their interpretations have means that the music looses the simplicity that made it beautiful and turns it into some neo-baroque / romantic nightmare although that said V F did do a lot to save the bach repetoir , he ruined it at the same time

  • yes!

  • that is a chair his father made for him when he was young, and he wouldn't play on anything else. You can hear it squeaking on several different recordings of his, much to the dismay of the producer/sound guys.  Quirky guy, Gould.

  • oh i should refrain from speaking ignorantly then but still the squeaks of the chair in the piece are not as Bach intended

  • Bach did not intend the piece to be recorded at all

  • @gr0mithtimon heh, recording wasn't possible at that time.. :)

  • Of course!

  • il la joue comme la 14ème fugue de l'art de la fugue

    magistral

  • I love the sequence of chords in this one! Beautifully played!