Added: 5 years ago
From: stephenykevin
Views: 595,510
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (692)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • It is cheese with a mold, it is thin and tasty, all it is not let know

  • You know, it's a monstrous shame this man did not have any kids. These are the kind of genes that would benefit that ole' genepool of humanity a great deal, when meanwhile more and more dirt is kicked up from it's murky depths..

    On the other hand it does seem it's the natural order of things, or at least very common, for those true geniuses to not raise families. I guess they really are to consumed by themselves (in the best way possible) to be able to properly devote to such things.

  • @Emptrapzor You know, when geniuses have kids, nothing guarantees that those kids would be such geniuses as their parents were. Take Bach's sons, for example: many of them were accomplished musicians, but they were not geniuses like their father. Mozart's son composed some sonatinas for the piano, but nothing to do with those of his father. Perhaps the only exception is that of Scriabin's son, who wrote some fascinating piano preludes that make everybody regret his untimely, too early death…

  • Sublime, quando si ascolta Glenn le cose terrene si alleggeriscono fino a svanire...

  • No one will ever make a better recording of these pieces. No one ever.

  • 21 dislikes?! really?

  • @chikechild we have to admit...

    his singing is soooo baad:P

  • @agniky touche.

  • That's a great shot of his passion at 1:52 I love it!

  • Imagine if you were the people who built that piano, hearing it played for all the art you had wrought, crafting that fine instrument... What a joy that would be... The mastery and craftsmanship flows through this recordng.

  • chupile

  • Dear almighty lord, please bring us back Glenn Gould, we'll give you Lang Lang in return.

  • @zhongyangli Horrible thing to say. Fanatics...

  • @zhongyangli God said,"What a rip-off!"

  • shits my pants at :19

  • Wow! Amazing! Great! Fantastic! Awesome! Marvelous! Excellent! Perfect!

  • Maria Tipo's recording is also beautiful.

  • this man's work is such an inspiration to me. he is an example, one of the greatest examples of what being a musician and performer can be, the heights one can reach...

    thanks for posting this, and thank you GG!!

  • He changed the way the world perceived Bach with the release of his Goldberg recording 1955. I got my copy not long after in 58. Lets hear it for vynal.

  • @jhutch1463 tell me about it!! this cd crap--so we have to buy four copies since they scratch after three plays..

    Glenn was masterful...

  • He changed the way the world perceived Bach with the release of his Goldberg recording 1955. I got my copy not long after in 58.

  • Jesus I love to listen to Glenn Gould

  • Difficile de trouver une vision plus inspirée

  • aaaarrrgghhhhhhh!!!!!

  • Ese orgasmo mental,dardo que traspasa o llega al alma.La misma idea de @bolimbo100,me sucede con la variación 13.(5:26-8:02).

    No en vano la NASA,dejó orbitando ilimitadamente para un hipotético pero no imposible contacto con otras civilizaciones."Las variaciones Goldberg"de JSB en la interpretación de Glenn Gould y el "Concierto nº2 de Bradenburgo,también de Bach en la versión de Sir Neville Marriner,como ejemplo humano de lo que fuimos capaces de crear.

  • stephenykevin@ muchas gracias por el upload,dis is massive,thanx.

  • HOW in heaven does he get such different tones from the piano?

    Unbelievable!

  • Wow. So clean and distinctly in two voices.

  • meraviglioso e grande Glenn Gould

  • Army piano beat's the shit out of this!!!!! Go on Carmel ya good thing ya...

  • Look at those thick meaty, muscular hands on him... not to mention long fingers. One time I saw a model of Chopin's hands cast a short time after his death and they were long and slender, smooth and elegant. Also saw a cast of another artist (maybe Van Cliburn's) in a collection of well known people and they were extremely long and spider like looking. (DrJonas Salk, polio vaccine, were quite small) Is it known if hand casts were made of Mr Gould's hands?

  • Comment removed

  • Man if I see this LORD OF THE PIANO tame this BEAST .. I can onley say .. al seems SOO logical I can't explain in words, but it is a feeling inside that says, this is SOO logical how he brings it ! .. his movements, his mumbling everything .. perfect .. so perfect so .. refined in detail .. so amazing well done ... just AMAZING

  • It would have been so cool if Glen Gould was my father.

  • @somnynightin78 You'd have been lucky!! He 'batted for the other side'!!

  • @Mrphilharmonic what do you mean by "he battled for the other side"?

  • @somnynightin78 It's a slang term used to describe a homosexual. I heard he was gay. They could be wrong. What does it matter as long as he played the way he did. I just found your comment humerous in that context. Sorry. Didn't mean to offend. Lots of great artists are gay. I don't have a problem with that.

  • Wow! Goosebumps!!

  • Isn't the 10th variation using the same subject as one of the tunes in the quodlibet?

  • 280509283589256082356023856023­785607235072345602375603725603­725072345027356023765027365023­784562305762305786237054623057­623507423160523456230576270453­1707307145-7134501735150157215­806275670216542170621075015710­475614027560214756076507126507­620578610571650783165726508267­4267082145u8621572657615721407­56217562175607265076205t621720­26521752717017qw67106761756105­767216723806762103576210576215­072316507216502317562165127651­702623501761350756231702631751­657231615761726571567262357652­30762130723167216656

  • @bondlake123 4253346444245676 7647454 77745356365667 755644565987335785958327687375

  • I'm quite sure this was taped during the time Gould was miffed at Steinway for being unable to produce an instrument to his liking, so he's using a Yamaha. His beloved Steinway was dropped and damaged so severely that it could never be put back together with the same voice and action he preferred, so he defected. He liked an incisive, harpsichord-like touch and sound rather than a singing tone for the linear, contrapuntal clarity necessary in Bach, at least in his view. Amazing pianist, though.

  • @drwaynejohnson Gee. I never knew that. How interesting. I thought Steinway would be more consistent than that.

  • Even an amateur can make Bach grant pleasure to most ears. Greatness, however, is reserved for very, very few.

  • 談得真好..

  • Gould ist bzw der beste Pianist der Welt. Keiner konnte sich so verschieden über die Musik ausdrücken wie er. The Mastermind of Pianist!!!

  • The 14th variation has always been my favorite.

  • @johnburtonbalnis My favourite too :)

  • Glenn Gould is a role model to me.

  • Ahhh....I am so glad to be alive when Glenn Gould was alive.

  • For some reason this reminds me heavily of Portal...

  • ma di chi cazzo sono questi 18 " non mi piace" ... sono affetti da alzheimer!?

  • this version of the variations is the 1981 one?

  • @cl23731 Yes.

  • (...And yes, Gould does stray from the written music slightly, with the placement and omission of trills, and sometimes changing sharps and flats. Likely the expression, tempos, and phrasing Gould plays would have seemed odd or jarring to people of that time, but at the same time, enlightening-- just as moving them into our time would be. Which answers another confusion people have: Music is not to "interpret best" but simply to satisfy our own tastes. Updates reflect new intelligence.)

  • "We seriously have to consider the idea that Gould was playing Bach better than Bach himself. It may even be better than Bach had intended." Yes, just as Shakespeare is probably performed with more depth and nuance than even Shakespeare could have foreseen. As stifled as our culture may be, the collective intelligence and sophistication of people still grows with each generation. What's amazing about a master like Bach is how few modifications are necessary to keep it pertinent even today.

  • @Yoshi5020 This is a pretty amazing comment. You are very incisive and eloquent. I'm impressed.

  • @Mrphilharmonic

    Thanks! I do try to leave amazing comments wherever I go. ^_^

  • @Yoshi5020 Good points. We should remember that Bach was simply without the technology and practice of a piano. Gould stands out most to me in the clarity and importance he applies to each voice. Integrally, he meticulously maintains independent dynamic continuity in each voice that's impossible to distinguish with a harpsichord or keyboard of Bach's day. Perhaps in Beethoven's late works do we finally first see such comprehensive counterpoint composed in a fuller understanding of dynamics?

  • @Yoshi5020 ha!

    bullshit.

    no offense to gould, he is incredible, but nobody can play a piece better than the creator.

    On top of that, have you ever heard the story about the french man who wanted to duel Bach in a harpsichord battle? The man showed up at the place they were to duel at, heard Bach practicing (as Bach got there before anybody else) and walked straight back out to his carriage and left back to France.

  • @SqueezeMyLemonBabe

    The idea that nobody can play a piece better than the composer is really untrue on so many levels. Your first mistake is the assumption that a composer has mastered every instrument (s)he writes for, which is almost invariably not the case. Sibelius, for example, wrote magnificent music for the violin, including one concerto, but his violin performance career was a failure.

  • @SqueezeMyLemonBabe

    The fact that Bach was good at playing the keyboard is no indication that he was better than Glenn Gould. We also don't know that he wasn't as good as Glenn Gould, since we haven't heard him play and we never will.

  • @colourfulwithaU Well, I agree with what you're saying especially concerning Sibelius, but Bach was well known to be highly talented.

    To me it is as simple as a comparison of compositional works.Gould excelled at playing Bach/Beethoven, etc. but his own musical creations are very dull and exceedingly lacking of a major element that Bach, quite obviously, had. That major element is indeed the reason why I hold Bach at a higher level in regards to talent as well as genius.

  • @colourfulwithaU Bach also was well known for his extremely good improvisations. to watch Bach improvise on any given tune would probably beat watching Glenn Gould play a piece that had already been written out.

    If Bach had been playing these pieces, he would vary them even from his own writing, so imagine how much more interesting it would be to listen to 20 different types of goldberg variations.

  • @SqueezeMyLemonBabe Cierto. Al menos las dos primeras lineas xd

  • @Yoshi5020 Debes de estar bromeando

  • I think this and horowitz rach 3 are the best piano videos in youtube

  • Who would dislike this, and why? shame on them

  • Bach demanded, yea,,he pleaded, and begged God to create Glen Gould.

  • Comment removed

  • This is what you call talent. Miley Cyrus can go die in a hole.

  • @imran1618 OH AMEN TO THAT !!!! :)

  • oh good god this is a higher music.

  • Mágica la obra y la interpretación.

  • THOSE CROSS OVER

  • We seriously have to consider the idea that Gould was playing Bach better than Bach himself. It may even be better than Bach had intended.

  • @mgjansen1 haha yeah I also thought about that. Who knows? But we do know from historical evidence that Bach was also a highly skilled singer and clavier player apart from a godlike composer. But I think it would be save to say that Gould would be a better player because there is a 200 year gap of repertoire between them. Bach never played Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel etc. And since Bach had to write pieces every week he didn't had as much time to focus purely on clavier play.

  • Shhhh. God is listening to Glenn play.

  • Man, he was a character. But he sure knew how to play!

  • How many people could even shine this man's shoes? Not but a few.

  • Choosing which is my favourite is impossible: they're all godded piece of music!

  • (sorry about that...)

  • "Stand up straight, Glenn!"

    Well, I guess if you're a genius you are allowed to forget about posture...

    He sacrificed his back for his Bach!!!...

  • wow, the first 8 variations video has 1.5 million views, and this one has one million views. so more than one million people just don't want to hear the rest...

  • 5:27 - 8:01 Bach and Gould have a nice chat together.

  • Heh! Surely the exact same chair can't be present in all eras of Glenn Gould footage! But no matter what era I'm watching, it always seems to be the same friggin chair.

  • @CaliCatBlog It was indeed the same chair. His father had made it for him and he used it in virtually all his performances.

  • A great example of a person being one with that he does, the piano is just an extension of himself!

  • Deu ni dó! tot boig... !

  • magnifique. =))))))

  • so amazing!!!

  • This is the stuff that has helped my soul survive 57 years in this world. He was a Master.

    Ron.

    ( ;-} >

  • my favorite bit of the goldberg variations: 0:57 and 1:17. oh my god that chord progression gets me every time.

  • 16 more idiots.......

  • Gould lived among the rarified air of the great Bach interpreters. We were blessed to have him amongst us.

  • 16 people don't deserve Glenn Gould.

  • My childhood favorite.....this made me cry... Such a passionate man!!

  • I miss him..

  • He's so gentle at 3:05 and 3:15 compared to his other recordings. Sublime indeed!

  • De cuando es este video??

  • It's the most beautiful piano piece that I've ever herd, really.

  • Always love variation 10's declamatoriness!

  • beyond sublime

  • si dios existe(?)...¿ha permitido que este tío se muera?

  • Que placer!!! Una interpretación magnifica!!! Inigualable!!! Si el mismo Bach pudiese oirlo, estaría impresionado.

  • @Solaris1992 Yo mismo estoy impresionado.

  • When it come to any performance of this piece, Gould's number should be retired!

  • Now, how can a new pianist come out and say : "ok guys, I'm gonna work on this pieces now, and do better than Gould's" ?

    This masterpiece might as well stay "the one and only" interpretation, for ever or so.

  • I am disgusted that youtube decided the Paginini Caprices were a related video

  • the front part of piano is removed ??

  • GENIUS!

  • To my ear, it's not just that Gould is the greatest interpreter of Bach on the piano, but that he is *so much* better than whomever is second by such a gaping margin as to make it hardly worth the while to listen to almost anyone else.

    I usually can't even make through full hearing of the Goldbergs played by Schiff or Perahia.

    To me they seem both formless and lifeless by comparison.

  • @polymath7 Gould is in a league of his own.

  • @polymath7 Yes, I never appreciated Bach so much until I heard Glenn Gould. Truly, he brought Bach to life, and made complete sense of his music. Sometimes I wonder if Gould might have been Bach in a previous life.

  • @polymath7 Indeed that's my feeling also. Hard to listen to any other pianist playing Goldberg variations on piano. I like harpsichord versions with Ton Koopman and others, but on piano no one else. For partitas I like also Dinu Lipatti and other pianists. And also The well tempered clavecin and the inventions, for me are intricate related to Glenn.  Glenn is 200% passionate involved in Bach music, no doubt! Is sad to say "was"...

  • @polymath7 check the jarrett's goldberg at the harpsichord ;)

  • @str3123 Jarrett's interpretations on the harpsichord are indeed superb, but in my estimation not singular. Oddly enough I have a much higher opinion of Jarrett's Bach than his Jazz (likewise Wynton Marsalis, though his jazz *at its best* is phenomenal).

  • @str3123 Oh, and incidentally, in most moods I actually strongly prefer Bach on the harpsichord to the piano; nonetheless I find myself listening to Gould more often than any harpsichordist because his understanding of Bach (both in grasping original Bach's intentions and in inventing felicitous novel interpretations) seems to me so unparalleled.

  • @polymath7 'xcuse me? I haven't heard Schiff yet, but Perahia is as high-quality as Gould.

    And if I remember correctly, it was you who was trolling on some other Bach video.

  • "...Perahia is as high-quality as Gould."

    I simply don't agree -not by a long shot.

    "And if I remember correctly..."

    Correctly? You'll have to define "trolling" beyond an all-purpose pejorative if you've any real desire to see your point understood, let alone adduced. Doing so will afford you the considerable the advantage that your reproach will actually mean something, and the disadvantage that I might actually defend myself against it.

    As the moment both are impossible.

  • glenn gould es sin duda el mejor interprete de Bach

  • To reply to an earlier poster: I agree, and I think that Bach would be slack-jawed and in amazement of Glenn Gould's performance. He gets every note, makes no mistakes, understands the role of every note and with all that technical brilliance, manages to convey this sense of humanity and something superseding it. If some alien race came down to earth to confront us about our 'barbary' I would play this in defense of humanity. Bach was a Christian and I am an Atheist, but I get it!

  • @theboris1000

    I'm an atheist as well, but I'm fond of saying that if I were ever tempted to suspect there is a God, it would likely be when listening to Bach.

  • @polymath7 How can someone who listens to his music make a comment that starts with the phrase : "i'm an atheist".... To me it's as if someone surrounded by blinding light said : "I dont think light exists so i'm more of a darkness person".

    Personally whenever i find myself in doubt i listen to this divine music and my hearth and my mind rest reassured of God's existance.

  • The passion, the heart, the talent and above all else, the love for music this man had was incredible. All of these attributes just shine from him, especially in this performance. Bravo Gould!!

  • lo confieso casi con rubor la variacion 9 me provoca algo parecido al placer sexual ,un prurito o comezon pero en el alma

  • @bolimbo100 jajjaja guay ... xdd

  • @bolimbo100 Es espiritual.

  • Comment removed

  • I've never listened to these before, and was wondering what was so special when my eyes became misty.

  • each voice given love and respect by glenn, in respect of every other voice. Bach would be proud, because he wrote each voice for a reason.

  • i think gould is one of the few interpreters who could play bach even beyond the limits that bach himself had ever or could ever reach. were the two of them to find themsleves seated at a clavier together, gould would probably reign it in a bit out of respect for bach.

  • @sailing19100 lol

  • @sailing19100 I like what you said.

  • Ses mains sont comme un ballet sur le clavier.

  • There must be something quite wrong with him, but in an exceptionably good way.

  • realize he has no music infront of him whatsoever

  • @bodacitymasters That's very true, & he never did!! It was all in his head -- everything he ever played -- was right there, imbedded in that brilliant brain of his to 'call upon' at any given time! That's what I am constantly marveling at ... that fact never ceases to astound me! Take the ul out of Gould, and what remains? GOD -- which is what he was -- a god at the piano, for sure!

  • @DesertAnnie Actually, you only have to take the "L" out because his original name was Glenn Gold. His parents changed it very early for fear of antisemitism.

  • holy his trills are amazing, wonderful interpretation in deed, !

  • Comment removed

  • 2:56

  • Gould speaks when he plays! People that criticize Gould are not tuned into the spiritual expression of the music.

  • No, this is what God was listening on the seven day.:)

  • @Meszess egyetértek. )

  • Amazing, beautifully played.

  • Glen Gould is the god of the ivory keys

  • Gould is perfect.

  • Perhaps GOD was playing his or her music through the human interpretation of thought and music with Glenn Gould. This was brilliant music. I own all the text and music by him. This will always be the intellegent music for me and others to become.

    I wish I was as bright a spot of music as him.

  • And He's still playing, each moment of every day. Can't you hear it?

  • 8:04

  • 1:52

  • 8:34 WOW his fingers move so flawlessly. Pure genious.

  • Absolute authority and mastery. I have come to the conclusion that Gould was the greatest of Bach interpreters. About as perfect as it gets.

  • I find these variations to be one of the hardest pieces ever created. These are so full of details that your head is about to explode. I know lot of hard works from henselt, alkan, godowsky, liszt, hamelin, chopin and so on, but still these are just so damn difficult even compared to those.

  • Aul1kki -- Yes! and yet he manages with aplomb, grace and a scintillating dynamic. Bach is a gem of the centuries -- and so is Gould!!

  • Gould is the best ever. This just picked me right up from out of my funk :-)

  • I was in somewhat of a funk and a friend sent this to me as if she knew I needed to hear this today. Picked me right up. Gould is the best ever!

  • Unfortunately, Gould was unable to use his beloved piano, Steinway CD 318, for this recording. By 1981 he had already tortured himself for ten years attempting to return it to it formal glory after the instrument was dropped by movers in 1971. It's surprising how different the timbre and action sound on this Yamaha as compared to his Steinway: much stiffer but suited to his needs.

  • All the Goldberg Variations are about half an hour altogether. Is Gould born with them in his brain already?

  • It seems like Bach composed this to Gould.

  • This is what God looked like during days 1 - 6.

  • @monkgroupie

    Haha, excellent comment!

  • I love the Goldberg Variations; so beautiful...

  • Me too.

  • ART!

  • Grandmaster Performance

  • Gould IS truly great; but also consider Charles Rosen, who did a WONDERFUL job on the Art of Fugue on a double album in 1970, CBS the label I think,,,

  • Comment removed

  • i still find it hard that something so genuinely amazing ever existed.

  • Well caviper I humbly disagree. Practice makes left hand as good as right. Finally, at highest level, pianists are perfect at both hands.

  • @Magnariste You might be right. I am just quoting my piano teacher. Still, this guy is the best left handed pianist I have actually heard.

  • @caviper1

    Gould was both handed IMHO, not many (even great) pianists are..

    Like a separate brain for each hand lol

  • @quinto34 No actually he was not... but it seemd ;-)

  • I ment piano wise :-)

  • Yeah I understood ;-)