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From: stephenykevin
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  • music straight from the soul of the universe

  • this is by far the best interpretation of this amazing piece,

  • What I heard was a man with a pure soul.

  • Should have been named Glenn GOLD!! His playing is pure gold. Pity he was such a strange guy, but then that's what they say about genius isn't it? One step away from insanity. Thank goodness for vids like this (AND the people that post them!!) so we can relive such sublime moments. THANKS!!

  • @Mrphilharmonic

    His last name IS originally GOLD. His parents changed it for fear of being mistaken as Jewish due to prevalent antisemitism in the area.

  • Pop music is a kind of entertainment not real music or art. we don't need to put them together.

  • I love this series but I cannot find variations 26 to 32. Will someone post them? Better yet can someone make a playlist of all 32 so they can be heard without interruption? This is really a priceless treasure for all time.

  • @JimL1137 Give me your mail and I'll send you the complete CD

    greetings from Belgium

  • @JimL1137 Gould plays Goldberg Variations var.26-30 & Aria Da Capo

  • hands down the best interpretation, I don't get it why people play it so fast.

  • I feel the music trickle into my blood stream... and, into my soul...

  • Schlachthof Fuenf!

  • (Soundtrack of Slaughterhouse Five...)

  • Watching him play like this conjures up the image of a painter getting as close to his canvas as possible to put in the smallest of details. Fantastic!

  • How the hell could four people dislike this?

  • @wehner26 What I always find funny is that people take the time to click on 'dislike'. If you don't like it just leave, lol. Nice clip, btw.

  • amazing

  • @cattoy80 its called enjoying the music.

  • do not curse him - praise or better to say nothing

  • good job

  • I heard the most beautiful Bach melody in the movie "Hannibal" last night (the part where he is showing the Italian detective the luggage and it's playing in the background). I just quickly saw Goldberg Variations in the credits...is this it? Does anyone know?

  • ALL The music of JSB is THE MOST beautiful; Don't mind if it's the Goldberg Variations, the partitas, the tocatas, the french/english suites, the well tempered clavier... JSBach is infinite, always deep, sensitive, amazing, astonishing... and Gould is probably one of his better interpreters. JSB is also the most published classical composer.

  • TheBarbaciano: I only play two of JSB's works and they are both Chorale Preludes transcribed for piano by Busoni...No. 3 in G minor and No. 5 in F minor. I'm afraid almost everything else of his is probably way too deep and over my head at this time.

  • Yes, this is the piece of music but I don't know if this specific part was playing at that time in the movie. I don't remember anything but the original theme from these variations in that movie. Try "Variations 1-5". The first slow section is probably the music you are looking for.

  • Thank you so much.  Yes, I found it.

  • Ask a harpsichordist----Variation 25 in G minor.....the scores are readily available IMSLP

  • You could look up "hannibal soundtrack" on google.

  • Yes it is!

  • @jjp009 You clearly have not seen Slience of the Lambs. The melody from the aria is used quite a bit in Hannibal. Watch Silence of the Lambs and you will see the significance.

    You are right though, it is from the Goldberg Variations.

  • Also very important in the film versipn of Vonnegut's "Slaughter House 5" no one knows who Billy Pilgrim is any more...

  • Glen Gould IS de Goldberg Variaties. Huiveringwekkend mooie en de beste interpretatie.

  • Pretty sure Mozart inspired himself with that starting melody.

    I forget what the piece is called.

  • Do you mean the 2nd movement of the A Major concerto?

  • almost, but not quite.

    Thanks though, I believe it was that one for a moment, but no. I checked, and it's still not the same chord progression, he is using a lot of IV64's instead of just root positions.

    The one I'm looking for follows the same chord progression, in same inversions.

  • Dit is gewoon van een andere wereld. Dit goddelijk en tranenverwekkend

  • Oh, jesus.  This is so beautiful it hurts.

  • I know- when I listen and watch this incredible man perform my chest hurts so much, like it's difficult to breathe.

  • muy lindo

    magistralmente ejecutado!!!!!

  • it's for seraph don't get me wrong

  • TWISTED.

  • you're really devoted to gould aren't you? You hate him so much that you watch every video! go kill yourself mr professor man and leave us all in peace. better yet, show us how bach would play it seeing as how you knew him personally or soemthing like that!

  • Your anger reveals that you know that I am right about this man. I have held up a mirror, and you do not like what you see. If you want to hear Bach played on the piano, try listening to Alicia DeLarrocha - she honors the composer and the music, and brings only the sweetness of her personality to the music. glenn god, on the other hand, brings his psychoses and other demons into it. Not my cup of tea.

  • that's interesting logic: well he rebukes every stupid thing I say and displays my stupidity, so, he must be just actually doing just the opposite and agrees with me! I thought you were a professor!

  • haha, aptly put. I had a similar argument with the guy not long ago to no avail. He left every rebuttal of mine and all of my most pertitnent, challenging questions unanswered. If he is indeed a professor, I pity his students and those who have to deal with him on a regular basis. I don't mind that he doesn't like Gould, but he acts like such a pompous ass about it. I think the 52 in his user ID must stand for his IQ, or more likely, number of brain cells.

  • Comment removed

  • i dont get how you call that shit music, much less how you think its good

  • dear archery guy., (3 months ago)

    It is not shit music but sheet music.

    .

    Check your spelling.

    Cheers.

    from,

    del-boy.

  • Miley Cyrus and Jonas brothers...how old are you? Shouldn't you be tucked in bed before 9?

    Seriously, you can have your own opinion about classical music...but comparing it with those people is just too funny. Miley cyrus, come on. Grow up, kid.

  • Hey seraph, why do you say bad things about classical music? Listen to some Bach & Beethoven before the terrible mediocrity of Jonas Brothers reduces your mind. You must be living in 'Farenhiet 451' with such terrible taste.

    Grow up before someone goes 'Clockwork Orange' on your tasteless, facade of a life.

  • i really wanna shit on your parts

  • you suck

  • Der mvz1312,

    Try the yellow pages, look under tuition.

    .

    You need to improve you communication skills, a private tutor will help, and may also help you pronunciation and general speech deficiencies.

    .

    good luck.

    cheer.

    from

    del-boy

  • I'm really sorry, I share a computer with my brother's son. This is not the first time this has happened. He's only 14. Would you be kind enough to tell me the comment he made that offended you? Once again, sorry.

  • Dear mvs1312 (3 weeks ago),

    Thanks for your message.

    .

    I cannot remember what the substance was of the message the fellow sent me that you refer to; however I am quite sure it was not offensive.

    .

    The free sharing of eureka moments and suggestions via comments is a great humanising feature of the you-tube experience.

    .

    Cheers.

    from,

    del-boy.

  • Gould was amazing. How beautiful to hear and see him play. I'm glad there are videos of him.

  • Glenn was once asked if he believed in God.  He answered: I believe in Bach's God. The beauty of the universe is reified in Bach. Glenn Gould was the perfect vessel into which this beauty flowed; his playing was it's perfect communication. LIke many others who listen to and watch Glenn Gould, I am frequently moved beyond . . . , well beyond.

  • It has nothing to do with spikes or Jesus .

    Something speakes out of this man (Gould) and it`s so beautyful and out of this world it needs words to express it, that are almost not available in our little existance. This is pure love to the thing he makes: music1 And it speakes right to your heart, even if you have never heard a piano before.

    If this is close to God, so be it

  • i agree with all my heart. please read what i wrote a few pages/months back on this video, i tried to say exactly what you just said so perfectly.

    and yes, this is close to god.

  • it has nothing to do with god in my opinion. Music is inherent in all of us. He's just learned how to express it greater. Why is it something that we all share than? Sometimes much greater for the people who devote themselves to music and caste away the gods.

  • How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality. - Norman Douglas

  • "The use of mindless quotations is poor replacement indeed for true wisdom"

    -Me

    My senses tell me that it is an utterly beautiful piece. That's all i need to know while i'm listening to it. If I truly WANTED to go deeper into it, about how it's constructed, I study theory, I study the mechanics and technique of the instrument, I study the evolution of the tuning scale, etc. J.s. bach was an utter genius. No divine creator had anything to do with this. I love it even more knowing that.

  • hear,hear

  • Creo que este hombre cuando toca deja de existir y se convierte en la música que toca.

  • Qué más puedo pedir... que el entendimiento, la claridad y la objetividad de un hombre que parece haber conocido al mismo Bach? Me encantaría tener una copia del casi original. Estamos en contacto. Mil gracias.

  • Has anyone found variations 15 through 24 on youtube? That is, the ones the GG recorded in 1981.

  • Goldberg Variations 15-19

    Goldberg Variations 20-24

    search for these two.

  • Most beautiful.

  • Loco.... pero genial

  • LoL!

  • Glenn Gould interview on the Goldberg Variations 1981 part 2 Look that up, and get a better insite into this thought process.

  • Bueno, esto es arte en su más pura escencia! Si cuando analizamos las variaciones en el Conservatorio me hubieran puesto esta grabación no hubiera necesitado partitura. No existe ni extistirá otro Glenn Gould.

  • So true, so chromatic and so expressive. Notice how only Gould makes it seem like people talking. Each voice has its own way and you can hear each one. We are lucky to have the genius of Bach and the genius of Gould together. so lucky

  • ¡Pero bueno..,Esto no es religión ni espiritualidad.Esto es el mejor músico interpretado por el mejor pianista.

    Tu comentario WKRPinCINN,me entristece profundamente.¡Que pena!

    Pero como decá Voltaire,aunque no esté de acuerdo con lo que dices moriría para que te expresaras libremente.

  • und verstünde ich nichts von musik, hätte ich nie ein klavier berührt, dieses stück, dieser alte mann auf dem viel zu niedrigen stuhl, sein singsang, die leicht zitternden hände, die musik, welche aus all seinen poren dringt und weit über seine histrionische ader hinaus zu spüren ist, all das hätte mich dennoch glücklich gemacht, und wäre ich taub, so hätte ich die hände auf den lautsprechern noch die zarte traurigkeit dieser noten erlebt... das ist musik.

  • Du hast es erfasst! Ich fühle genauso, hätte es aber nie so schön ausdrücken können.

  • incredible to see the hands ! He's also like making a " ballet" , directing at the same time, making a flow of energy...wow ! I suppose he was really in "extase" when playing ! He was just " music " ! he was married and dedicated so much ! Very rare...I suppose it's a vocation !

  • i love bach and have only just discovered these videos...

    as for the ballet of the hands...i believe the "ballet" to be merely a byproduct of what he is doing...i think that the concentration involved in playing at this level is likely very far beyond what you or i know, and so his immersion in the pieces results in these involuntary "tics" - many great players have such idiosyncracies.

    of course, i never got to ask glenn about this ;)

  • Glenn inspires me tenderness....! I love his style!

  • I'm still in awe that Bach wrote this variation. Exceedingly chromatic compared to the typical Bach formula and I love it.

  • absolutely gorgeous, But this variation is really different from the other ones, and is of a rare depth. This chromatic writing style is unbelievable. A rare piece among Bach works, the purest form of his genius

  • Beautiful. Sublime. Graceful. Beyond Words.

  • Ι can't

    describe what I feel hearing this unique interpretation.

  • gould playing the 25 variation is a huge weight on the side of scale in favor for the argument of the existence god

  • i can see how it might scare one to hear this and not believe in a god, because this playing represents a great expansiveness to human existence and therefore a great responsibility.

    the conclusion that this comes from god, and is not our responsibility is much easier to bear than the conclusion that we have it in us to unleash somthing god-like, indeed, we attribute it to god to lift the weight from ourselves.

    do you think that may explain your conclusion?

  • i've said that many times...

  • God your stupid. There are geniuses out there you know. It doesn't mean god made them. Geniuses can either be random mutations, a product of a very unique environment, or natural selection, or a combination of all these. Your dumb simply because your ancestors chose mates based on either availability, desperation, or appearance...not intelligence. You probably grew up around barbies and GI Joe as well, which didn't help. You can get the exact same results from breeding dogs with certain traits.

  • i really have to debate with myself to justify a response to your comment, because you are obviously a young man, intelligent and bold, who has strong feelings on spiritual issues. i myself am an atheist.

    yes. people can be (and are) bred like dogs. yes, genetic mutations can produce "genius". yes, in a analytic way, our parents fucked each other because of "availability, desperation, or appearance". your right, but your also wrong...

  • life is not that simple. gould was not a mutation, he had a gift beyond playing the piano that is unparalleled, not solely a product of conditioning or genetic inheritance. there is something else in his humanity and sentience that is unique (and NOT intellectual). did god make him? most likely not. can anyone else play bach with passion, precision and grace like he could? maybe a handful, out of the billions of people on earth RIGHT NOW, and remember he died in 1981.

  • i dont mean to pick at your long past conversation but i am going to. To me it is an insult to Gould for you to say he had a gift. now i certainly agree with you that he had a talent that was beyond playing the piano. But that talent came with a life devoted, even enslaved, to music more precisely the understanding of music. To say he had a gift seems like something was given to him like his life was for the taking and that is never the case.

  • he had to earn his talent, he was never given anything except a capable mind. sry to be picky we could mean the same thing

  • "God is a Concept by which

    we measure our pain...

    I'll say it again

    God is a Concept by which

    we measure our pain...

  • life is the what by which we measure our pain.

    I agree, but

    I just believe in me, and in that reality the dream isnt over

    what can i say?

    the dream isnt over

    it will never be

    you'll just have to carry on

    the dream will never die while it's in my arms

  • There ain't no Jesus gonna come from the sky

    Now that I found out I know I can cry...

    Old Hare Krishna got nothing on you

    Just keep you crazy with nothing to do

    Keep you occupied with pie in the sky

    There ain't no guru who can see through your eyes...

    I seen through junkies, I been through it all

    I seen religion from Jesus to Paul

    Don't let them fool you with dope and cocaine

    No one can harm you, feel your own pain...

  • yes, didnt i tell you? i agree.

    but dont you understand? "we finite ones with infinite souls are born only for sorrows and joy and it might almost be said that the best of receive joy through sorrow."

  • *the best of us receive...

  • "Well, early in the mornin Im a-givin you a warnin

    Dont you step on my blue suede shoes.

    Hey diddle diddle, I am playin my fiddle,

    Aint got nothin to lose.

    Roll over Beethoven and tell Tschaikowsky the news."

    - Chuck Berry

  • yup, and(aside from the last line) ludwig understood that much better than most people, but physical complications limited his will to show his humorous life-loving character to the public. But the thing is that beethoven actually had blue suede shoes his entire life. and as much as i love berry he only had them for a period of his life. that is why we will remember beethoven for as long as we have record of him and remember berry for a hundred or so years. but i love that song, it's groovin

  • but all i really get from that song is a groovin rockin feeling. which is nice, sometimes. but as for me i am more of a man who likes struggle. i like to feel work put in. i like to feel the artist overcome something and break through into something wonderful whether it be happy, sad, or as it should be mixed. i just dont really feel the life in music that repeats 1-4-5 because it is too simple for me. i want to know how the artist got to the 5 and resolved it. did he simply just use the 4?

  • it sounds more like something to just plug into and have fun. And though that is a perfectly respectable aspect of music, to me it is not enough. it doesn't satisfy me. but when i hear this variation of Bach's and am able to pick out the structure from the original tune and understand how Bach has completely changed it while keeping certain relationships it completely overwhelms me, changes me, to me thats music, the other is just fun

  • so... all art is born of suffering? it has to be complex? cant art be a joyous thing too, overcoming nothing- just being? ever hear any Robert Johnson blues - or Mississippi John Hurt? they are both simple yet at the same time complex. Is Dr Sues not great because he wrote nonesense? Allot of great art does break through, but christ... it doesn't have to.

    "Stop making sense" - David Byrne.

  • thats exactly what i said, in my own way. i am glad we could agree. simple is always better, but there is a difference between simple and too simple. those blues pieces are amazing because in their simplicity they go somewhere, they have movement and peaks, they are like life. Art is a joyous thing but without the sadness there is no relationship to make the joy joy.

    p.s.- to me dr sues is only so-so

    but robert johnson, ah he is good, he gets it.

  • you are wise betraylogic....very wise

  • i detest religion. i was raised catholic and despise it, and am not a fan of people who think god talks to them or tells them what to do. religion is a vice if it takes away your autonomy.

    but spirituality is a virtue if approached with a sensitive and critical mind.

    do not discredit spirituality in life. although most religions are schlock and mind control, there is an element to life lost if you have no faith or think dna is the only reason things happen.

    PS- fuck you for calling me stupid.

  • LOL!!!

  • matwil74--Your first sentence is no credit to your intelligence. "Your" is a possessive pronoun, not a contraction of "you are". The word you are looking for is "you're". You're welcome.

  • That is assuming that amazing things instantly prove god.

    By the same logic I could show horrible things happening to disprove god.

  • I never said that gould proves the existence of god, i said that he is a weight on a scale IN FAVOR OF the existence of god.

  • I think amazing things instantly prove people are worthwhile. I suppose the collective abillity to go beyond limitations could be called 'god', but that's a long shot.

  • "amazing things"??? riding a bike backwards is amazing, this music is beyond description in beauty and power.

    PS - I dont know how i came to be the DA for the court case of YouTube posters vs God, im an atheist myself. Please dont try to convince me of God being real or not, i dont care to convince or push the issue with anyone.

  • Well, I'm fine with non-supersized words.

    "YouTube posters vs God" has to be the best description of the standard of youtube commentary ever.

  • haha. that's really funny.

    wonder who'll win?

  • I never heard Jesus write anything like this!

  • having iron spikes driven through your hands kinda puts a hold on your piano playing career.

  • ha no i thought i was replying to the comment someone made that this piece and video is proof that God exists

  • If there were no God, there would be no Atheists. - G. K. Chesterton

  • What a ridiculous quotation! Regardles of whether God exists or not there will always be theists and atheists, the word defines someones beliefs! If there were no God and nobody believed there was one then everyone would be atheists! I dont like this chesterton bloke much ha

  • A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought. - Dorothy L. Sayers

  • Not many people have the humor to disagree with themselves through quote mining :)

    I'd quote Churchill but....

  • The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be. - Walter Bagehot

  • I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

    - Ralph Waldo Emmerson

  • Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted. - Hesketh Pearson

  • I improve on misquotation. - Cary Grant

  • It is better to be quotable than to be honest.

    -- Tom Stoppard

  • A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought. - Dorothy Sayers

    (Apologies about the other account in there. A friend had used my computer and was still logged in.)

  • exactly what i would like to say, but my english sucks :P

  • ok...so? xD If there were no sadness, there would be no happyness.

  • thanks for the insight plato

  • You can learn more from the small details in Goulds play than anything scribed to paper.

    He's really a great blessing I hope more people will Discover the depth and quiet humility of this great artist.

  • GG would have loved the technology available today...so sad that he passed away so relatively early...

  • How is one supposed to listen and watch this without gasping for breath... a wonder, an oasis of pure and deepest insight that makes everything else look small, insignificant and negligible... What a phenomenon Gould was, or rather is, and through him I also learn what phenomenon Bach was... Phew...

  • No interpreta música,él es música,gracias Glenn Gould

  • variations 15-24?

  • just variation 25, interpreted brilliantly.

  • c'est genial.

    merci, glenn.

  • Such an intimate recording. He said he reworked this variation because the 1950s recording sounded too much like a Chopin nocturne.

  • Thank you for sharing that info. I have his early recording and was thinking the same thing (sounding like Chopin) and can't believe that the legend himself said that about his own recording. I've been away from the music world so long so sometimes I am not sure what I feel is true or real. I absolutely love this rendition and am on my way to the library to pick it up...like right now ;)

  • I love when he conducts himself.

  • Hey what up? I heard that you're one of the world's greatest pianists. I really am a big fan of yours because music is my biggest passion. Sorry to say this, but I haven't got any movies because I just joined this YouTube today. You're really good, man! One of the best recordings! By the way, do you write your own music? If you do, then that'll be really awesome! Good luck! See ya in our future.

  • Er... I think you're a little bit confused. Glenn Gould died in 1982... this is just a recording that Stephenykevin uploaded here for our enjoyment of this beautiful music. Actually, Gould was one of the world's greatest pianists... but he's not anymore between us. His music was too good for this world, I'm afraid...

  • obviously he was kiding...

  • Music and human expression finally seep in at Var.25...he got tired of the modern manic autism perpetuated through the majority of the movements hithertofore and gave in to

    spirituality at last.This almost redeems all the other unbaroque crimes here.

  • and there you are again! did you get your money back on that hearing-aid yet?

  • is he singing?

  • Of course he is. He did it to express his feelings for the music that he thought the piano couldn't. Most Glenn Gould listeners love this eccentricity and welcome hearing it.

  • Except a young girl I knew of who was listening to him on her walkman in bed, and suddenly jumped up, thinking there was somebody there in the room with her, humming!

  • It was the ghost of Glenn Gould. She should have felt honored that he was humming to her. This is music from an angel.

  • he's one of my top 2 favorites, but definitely a little bit of a loon

  • Existe lo inexpresable..esto se muestra a si mismo..es lo Mistico

    Wittgenstein

  • Gould was a Bach priest,his 1981 performance , slower than the first is "less" based on technique an'more on meditation ,silence,time for the listener to appreciate one of the highest peaks music reach; both performances are outstanding an' worth a listen if you want to enter the world of J.S.Bach through the main door.Claudio Durgone ,Sassari,Sardinia.

  • Try also to listen his live performance in Salisburg... it's impossible to say that's better then the one you was writing about or the one recorded in 1955 but, sure, it's another masterpiece...

  • I love the live performance in Salzburg. It flows...I

  • GG rarely used the pedal...

  • Well said, enter the world of J. S. Back through the main door... indeed, it is G. G. Who could doubt that God made him specially for Him, and took him for Himself before his time...?

  • I totally agree...Gould was from another world. Look at the performance, the passionate moves, how he gets lost in Bach's maze physically and spiritually.

  • ...probably the most perfect piece of music in the best performance ever.....unbelievable

  • You're right!

  • awesome!

  • Variation 1981 it is

  • are that variations number 15 to 25?

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