Glenn Gould - Scriabin , Prelude Op. 33 No. 3

[ugolinoandhissons]

I honestly don't like watching Glenn Gould play, but his reputation is not the result of publicity, super-virtuosity, a cult, or anything else but genuine genius. Genius happens sometimes.

[anesthetize1me]

gotta love the chair

[kwongin]

Fascinating. And he probably realised all of this just in his head. Gould was a real genius.

[Ravel87]

this is the greatest thing i've ever heard

[flylooper]

I don't get Scriabin. I've tried for years and still can't. He makes no sense to me.

[Steinwaytoday]

@flylooper his approach is very emotional. try to listen to ideas rather than phrases. feel instead of listening. but i dont like this piece that much either hahaha

[flylooper]

@Steinwaytoday

I've listened to a ton of music "emotionally" (Read: romantics) and even enjoy some of the moderns and atonalists (Shoenberg, Berg, etc.), but Scriabin just confounds me. I can live with it. LOL.

[harvardkarbodie]

@flylooper ...which, for me, is part of the beauty of his music! It isn't very terrestial at all.

[KABRIS1]

Great interpreter!

[petezilla]

He said that his approach to the piano is "a personal matter between the me and the piano, and it's no business of anybody else" or something to that effect.

[sshuck]

Everybody is trying to reason for or against Gould or each other. All the little pseudo-academics.

Did you *hear* the last 48 seconds of your computer? That was Glenn Gould playing the piano, weirdly and inexplicably and delightfully.

[munkybrain]

ooi like that piece. especially after listening twice in a row

[buffuzo]

Some of Glenn's tempi were awfully slow in the sonatas, I don't know if he recorded any of the concertos. I prefer Brendel or Uchida or even Richter for Mozart. But I understand how you may like Glenn's Mozart.

[buffuzo]

His Mozart sonatas were pretty miserable in my opinion, but he did not like Mozart, Beethoven or the romantics anyway. But he was a genius in many ways. I always enjoyed his sense of humor when I watched him on CBC. I thought his Beethoven was excellent actually, as well as Hindemith and 12 tone works.

[owatson322utube]

His Mozart recordings are certainly bizarre in light of modern stylistic preferences but in my view they are amongst the finest performances of these works available. His playing style is in actual fact very appropriate for the music and the level of clarity and precision achieved is second to none. I agree, his Beethoven recordings are outstanding.

[rushwarp]

Gould is a jackass who made mockery of every composer but Bach. He played outstanding Bach though. Goulds had percussionists' concept of music so he played everything with perfect time which doesn't work for Romantics. His Chopin for example sounds like a school kid playing it.

[PianoGirl555]

He sits really low dont you think??

[polymath7]

I had no idea Gould recorded Scriabin.

Not sure what to make of this so far.

[Und1ne]

Was thinking the same thing when I saw his name

[HwangMyungShin]

Scriabin is not Gould's thing. It requires a extra special care taken in terms of pedalling. Gould is good with Bach, Mozart and Early Beethoven.

[garmonbozia318]

While I'm not wild on this interpretation either, he plays Scriabin's op. 57 pieces beautifully. Also, I would add Schoenberg, Berg, Prokofieff, Byrd, Haydn, Sweelinck, Gibbons and Strauss to the list of his strengths.

[Opoczynski]

He sits so low because that's how he likes to sit.

[johntosh00]

He sits on his father's old chair and even though it is falling apart!

[milograamans]

That chair looks uncomfortable, and generally speaking it's harder to play sitting that low... whatever

[phoolisness]

but people generally aren't eccentric

[dizygotegemini]

Hahaha!

[LemonPie17]

funky background...

[thunder1909]

Why does he sit so low?

[Scrithe]

Why do you sit so high?

[GeremieRomeo]

Why do we sit at all?

[Scrithe]

Go try to play standing. He sits low because his teacher taught him to pull down on the keys rather than push them down. His dad made him that chair, which he used his entire life, even after he completely wore away the seat.

[mikedazwell]

@Scrithe because it's his favorite chair made by his had. Look at the worn out cushion. It's like a blanky for Glenn. Or...this is a piece that calls for striking of the keys which is easier to do from a bit higher up, striking down.

[silosmundoschocan]

@Scrithe maybe his height is around 6'5''

[kepler101]

he broke his back when he was a kid

[elmauro]

a great contribution; can you tell me which source these clips of gould's scriabin are from (DVD/tape/whatnot)?