Glenn Gould Plays Bach's prelude and fugue in E major

What amazes me is Mozart's dumbed down polyphony is more popular than bach's music. Maybe that says something about the public's lack of discernment.

Gould fans (I still am one): having a fantastic technique and facility for playing polyphonic music doesn't give you the ultimate word on interpreting Bach. No matter what, Gould came from the "old school", where Strauss, Wagner, Brahms, Scriabin, etc. (late Romantics, modern composers...) made up his tonal world. He approached Bach's music with a 20th century musicality (which is fine/great), but puts his personality ahead of knowledge or understanding of Early Music practices - which he knew!

@bersa888 Bach was the greatest innovator. No composer after Bach was so thoroughly the learned musician. The works he composed (& very often performed) were so beautifully and so intelligently worked out and elaborated that they exhausted the resources of tonal sound. In Bachs counterpoint, the listener is aware of a remarkable complexity but never a laborious or academic one. Its authority is absolute.

I agree with every single thing you wrote... so, I don't see what this is about, really :-) But Bach wasn't born with all of his capacities ready to go. There was a lot work to do, even for a genius. His strength was his capacity for re-elaboration and sheer musical imagination. But he had to start from somewhere... ;-)

Mainly, you'd understand what I said if you also write music professionally (more or less). Understanding the mechanisms of writing Baroque music clarifies many "mysteries of the trade", "how to pluck the right chords", so to speak.
Bach was simply the best at doing them :-)

gould understands bach in a way noone else ever did and some stupid jerks comment his face.....i really think they should remove comments from youtube. it should be only videos

with out emotion

you must be kidding.

no there are much better