Glenn Gould - Moonlight Sonata pt. II (Beethoven)

[daniel3231995]

My favorite movement of the sonata?I'd say - DUH.YES.

[andy66100]

cool!!!!

[kubekbeta5]

Actually it wasn't his decision to play moonlight sonata this fast. Read a book, morons.

[humbher3]

Glenn Gould is a MAGIC pianist playing Bach stuff.. but playing this Beethoven sonatas i think is really poor =)

[af796]

where is the 1st movement by gould?????

[bedmanz]

WHERES 3RD PART

[Nooooey]

agree with philateliceun. I am glad part III is removed. It is such an insult to Beethoven.

[kralle333]

Overwhelming

[af796]

Whatever happened to part I? Please post it back.

[philateliceun]

Every Time I hear Gould play Beethoven I think he is making fun of Beethoven. Does anybody else has the same feeling? I mean the interpetation of the last movement was just a fuck you to Beethoven. Practically saying "I am going to play this as fast as possible to get it over with".

[yumpin]

@philateliceun it's marked presto agitato. that means VERY FAST AND AGITATED. If you slow it down, you can hear how evenly he plays it, and how intricate and thoughtful his phrasing is. It's tough to hear at full speed so use a media player to slow it down. Beethoven was not himself a follower of common practices so why on earth would an 'impractical' interpretation be insulting to a composer who firmly believed the pianist should play the work their own way?

[MrMaenon]

Good ol' Sony had movement I and III erased from youtube. Sigh..

[af796]

What happened to part one?

[sghedrez]

è meglio bach, beethoven fatto così è una merda. grande g. gould, ma meglio non ascoltarlo suonare beethoven,è irritante! abusare della libertà di esecuzione irrispettoso verso l' autore e verso chi ascolta.

[kabul555666]

hello

[timothypnolan]

I would like to thank all of you for turning the comments section into a pretension competition, also thank you for turning all so called "classical" music appreciation into the realm exclusively of boorish custom. Get a life.

[ycooreman]

Beethoven played most of his music a lot faster than what people have come to get accustomed to after the last century of 'romantic' interpretation. Gould's tempo makes absolute sense.

[Valholm]

@ycooreman and music does sound right, I believe, when played like this

[15silverblade]

this piece should be played in tempo, like little red riding hood hopping gracefully to her grandmom's house

[javiercz211091]

too fast can't really be appreciated.

[harryschneider007]

I think when Gould arrived in heaven Beethoven would have slapped him arround a little.

[mahler151]

@harryschneider007 Hopefully Gould will slap you a bit when you go to Heaven.

[marisasw]

@mahler151 lol

[TheMCjai1991]

this is better than richter's interpretation in my opinion=D (since he could play the contrapuntal piece much better than homophonic ones@o@)

[Queenpr3cious]

i love that he is playing this fast, because or else i don´t get the feeling of it. It sounds so light and makes me happy. but if it´s played to slow i loose the feeling og lightness and happyness.

[CaptainBluebear08]

@Queenpr3cious

Just soooooo true

[jasonextreme]

:D this piece is like a stroll in a park.

[ILoveThePiano1]

@jasonextreme BINGO! Perfect description of this happy-go-lucky piece. It's such a cute piece.

[platmosic]

Many people would say he played too fast. Me too. But notice his is not playing for you. He is playing for himself.

[harryschneider007]

@platmosic I agree with you. He plays it far too fast (as he does most of his works)

Bit of an enigma there. How can the best technical piano player in the world (probably of all time) produce so called music which is barely acceptable?

(Hope Daniel B. doesn't read this!!)

[CSPlayerDamon]

@harryschneider007 I know it's been 5 months since you commented..just wanted to ask. Do you mean Gould had the best technic for his repertoire or in general? Because the way he played whatever he played was actually technical perfection, but you never heard him play Alkan or another composer whose technique is quite different.

[gustavoturm]

@platmosic Actually he's playing to my mom, which was his girlfriend when he played that.

[FurlanPaolo]

@platmosic Well said, friend, well said.

[megagnathos]

I like how he plays this movement. I myself would put a little more poignancy to the upbeats and less of that manic swing between phrases.

[TriscuitXIII]

I go by what's beautiful and, so far I like Part 1 the best. Its amazing.

[Lukecash12]

This is gorgeous. He plays this as if he were playing the fourth sonata; And with such suppressed gusto and magnificent dynamics! For me he is a big authority on all Early Romantic and Baroque music. But not to mention some great Scriabin too :)

[LowMan94]

I Love Gould

[mistakenshyness]

For me Gould ruins the first movement, but this is probably the best performance of the second I have come across. Most people seem to trundle through this in a hurry to get to the third, but I like how he really explores the twists and turns and gives it it's own persona.

[Lukecash12]

In all reality, Gould follows the tempo markings for the first movement much more closely than a majority of the pianists today.

Beethoven, just like Handel, played all of his pieces at a tempo that is faster than people normally want to hear it nowadays. Supposedly, it didn't sound the "right" way.

[ThisIsMe113]

beautiful

[werewethere]

Logical yes, but what a playful performance

[talonboy5432]

Easily the most obscure and the easiest movement out of the three..Yet so hard to make logic out of it until this got proved by Gould...Wonderful.

[elisdagbok]

nhaa! the 1st 1 on is the easiest

[OerHelland2]

agree

[googlekopfkind]

it doesnt matters easy or not

i can writte a peace of crap that is so hard to play that nobody will able to play it :)

[daniel3231995]

@googlekopfkind You are so right.I wish you could make this point to so many musically-ignorant idiots.

[chemicalcarlos]

I prefer this movement played a little on the allegro side. I feel that going uptempo emphasizes the more playful aspect of the movement. It also helps that it reminds me of the Chilly Willy cartoon that introduced me to this piece. :)

[bentandarkmobile]

this is his best out of the three he plays

[1992peter]

This pianist ROCKS with a GIANT R.

[klinsha8]

Any of you, friends, had listen to Joseph Hoffman interpretation of chopin's Fantasie Impromtu? Listen, please.

Maybe, -or most probably- the fact of Glenn, when seven years old, attended with his parents a Hoffman concert, signifies nothing.

But I always remind this.

[JacobRudduck]

Glenn Gould rocks!

[1992peter]

THAT WAS EXCELENT.

I LOVE GLENN GOULD!

[faleru]

o_O

ok

[PlatypusofCalifornia]

Very logically formed and shaped by gould here, no nonesense.

[wikiwuki]

he plays everything too fast!!!!!!!!!

[Milligan1932]

You really are a prat you know that? I will give you the right to complain when you are a better pianist than he was, so suck it up, listen and enjoy!

[plumsmuglers]

only 5 comments

 hmm.. wonder why??

[agentsoranges]

yes he plays the 3rd movement slightly

 faster than most but, thats his style

[TheGuyCalledX]

The 2nd movement is his best performance, 1st and third are way too fast.

3rd is presto agitato, and he plays prestissimo, 1st is adagio, he plays moderato...

[blastbomb123]

Playing fast is just his style. Of course his style is unique, and it adds a really nice tune to it (in my opinion).

[Arganos0]

Added Pathetique III

[boomzxz]

Amazing, I love it.

[salmonroll]

boomzxz, I agree. The force and speed of the third movement comes very naturally and logically after this. With some other pianists, it sounds disjointed. Gould is phenomenal.