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Magic power. The audience´s meeting with pianist Glenn Gould (1932-82) | |||
 Glen Gould, with permission from Sony Norge Also: "...He strides out briskly but with a certain awkwardness, suggesting he is not at ease in a suit of tails that looks a size too big for him.." "Gould was, alas, a little crazy but had a remarkable, hypnotic effect at the piano".  "...And Gould´s habit of plunging his hands and lower arms into boiling water before each session in the recording studio; this was one of his quircks which was turned into marketing stratagems..." "..he would nibble arrowroot biscuits during breaks in the recordings, having first washed them carefully in skimmed milk.." .."He sways his body rhythmically, and the prominent jaw undulated, giving him a rather simian cast to his pale, clean-shaven face.." .." His playing is remarkable - sculptured, three-dimensional; each phrase seems to have a life of its own.." "..his hands caressing the keyboard as if he is making love.." "His play is a kind of seduction" .."Very few pianists has this magic; the triumph in fusing bodily display with musical intelligence.." "The applause seems to startle him" "....Gould is associated with more mystery than most other pianists and musicians in general" "He wanted people to notice his vulnerability as well as his genius" |
It is February 28, 1957, in California, and the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by
Enrique
Jordá will give a concert. The conductor opens with a rarely heard symphony by the
Spanish
composer Juan Arriaga, who died tragically young, at age twenty, in 1826. It is beautifully
conducted by the Spaniard Jordá, but receives with only mild applause from a somewhat
lethargic Wednesday-night audience.
Next on the program is the Bach F Minor Concerto, and a 24 old man will make his local debut. The pianist´s appearance on stage is unusual, to say the least. He strides out briskly but with a certain awkwardness, suggesting he is not at ease in a suit of tails that looks a size too big for him. His gaze at the audience seems hesitant and unfocused. He doesn´t look like someone who enjoys being in a crowd. His attention is more on the conductor and the musicians, whom he greets warmly before ambling over to a Steinway Grand. The instrument has been elevated on wooden blocks placed under the three legs. That, and the rickety folding chair on which Glenn Gould sits very close to the floor, brings his body into a strikingly unorthodox relationship to the keyboard. His arms are on a horizontal level, rather than angling from above, but he seems quite relaxed in that unusual position. He smiles, rubs his hands, and leaned forward, his face nearly resting on the piano keys. The Bach F Minor Concerto is originally written for the hapsichord and is a somewhat unusual choice for a pianist making his local debut within his transcontinental tour - most performers will start with something more flashy. But it seems fitting for this young Canadian, since his reputation rests primarily on the his successful interpretation of Bach´s music. Louis Armstrong into second place.In the fall of 1951, at the age of nineteen, Glenn toured Canada´s western provinces accompanied by his mother. He performed the Fourth Beethoven Concerto with the Vancouver Symphony, conducted by William Steinberg, and gave a solo recital in Calgary.Glenn Gould was already a celebrity in Canada when - 22 years old - he made his debut in the States: January 2, 1955, at Philips Gallery, Washington, D.C., and January 11 in New York City. His program included Beethoven´s Sonata in E Major no. 30, opus 109, Webern´s Variations, opus 27, the Piano Sonata opus 1 by Alban Berg and five Three-Part Inventions (Sinfonias) and the Partita no. 5 by Bach. Accidentally, David Oppenheim, then director of the Masterworks Division of Columbia Records went to the concert and liked what he heard. A few days later CBS offered him a sensational recording contract that was to last throughout his life. March 29 this young pianist played in Hamilton, Ontario, the Bach Concerto in D Minor with Sir Ernest Macmillan conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The recording included also Bach´s Goldberg Variations. In Oppenheim´s view, Gould "was, alas, a little crazy but had a remarkable, hypnotic effect at the piano." Initially, however, Oppenheim was far from happy with Gould´s suggestion that their first recording together should be of Bach´s Goldberg Variations. With the exception of a Welte-Mignon recording made around 1928 by the young Rudolf Serkin, few pianists had taken any interest in the work. Not even harpsichordists regarded Bach´s "Aria with 30 Variations" of 1742 as part of their standard repertory. Nonetheless, the result was that the first memorable recording sessions took place between June 10 and 16, 1955, making the beginning of more than twenty-five years of collaboration between Gould and CBS. Already at that time young Glenn seemed pretty secure of capturing a market. Was Gould an eccentric? It is difficult to say. He could not change the way he was - the way in which he appears on the thirty photographs which were taken during the recording session (one for each variation) and which were used on the record sleeve at the time of its first release. And Gould´s habit of plunging his hands and lower arms into boiling water before each session in the recording studio; this was one of his quircks which was turned into marketing stratagems. David Oppenheim exploited these so effectively that the press was already acclaiming "the Gould phenomenon" even before the recording had been released. Magazines and newspapers such as "Glamour", "Esquire", "The New Yorker" and "The Herald Tribune" embroidered the event with all manner of details both factual and fictional. It was said, for example, that Gould removed his shoes in order to play and that he placed a small oriental cushion under the pedals, since he felt "unhappy" if his feet were in contact with the wooden floor. For sustenance he would nibble arrowroot biscuits during breaks in the recordings, having first washed them carefully in skimmed milk. When the recording was released in 1956 it quickly became a best-seller, and it has never been out of print, selling well even today. Thus it was a media event, the extraordinary and well-publicized recording of an obscure work, that catapulted a young Canadian to the sphere of select, great international artists. The record broke all sales records, even pushing a new Louis Armstrong record into second place! Sculpturing the musicLet us now return to the California-concert. Gould obviously enjoys playing the music and has a profound sense of its structure. He sways his body rhythmically, and the prominent jaw undulated, giving him a rather simian cast to his pale, clean-shaven face. Indeed, he is articulating every note with his mouth; one can hear him vocalize at times. His playing is remarkable - sculptured, three-dimensional; each phrase seems to have a life of its own. With the orchestra accompanying accurately and sensitively, Gould becomes ecstatic, his expression one of rapture, his eyes closed or turned inward, and his hands caressing the keyboard as if he is making love. This total involvement with the music also incorporates a curious tendency to elevate his left hand and make conductorlike gestures, giving direction to himself as well as the orchestra.The combined visual and aural effect of Gould´s performance quickly transmits itself to the audience, who becomes raptly attentive, almost transfixed. His play is a kind of seduction. He is pulling his spectators into psychological orbits both close to him and far away, in some ethereal space. His interpretation of the slow movement of the Bach Concerto is truly a revelation. He projects the soulful melody like a silver thread by articulating each phrase with immense deliberation and creating smooth continuities between individual notes. The result is so songlike that it is difficult to believe one is listening to a piano. And the last movement, in strongly accentuated three-eight time, inspired such a rollicking sense of rhythm that the audience seems to want to dance along with the joy and vitality of Gould´s playing. What a performer! Very few pianists has this magic; the triumph in fusing bodily display with musical intelligence. Sources tell that Liszt did it in the nineteenth century. In more recent days Artur Schnabel might be a parallel to Gould. And of course; let us not forget Arthur Rubinstein, who with effortless ease spellbound his audience - for instance with his marvellous Chopin-interpretations. And Sergei Rachmaninoff; his granitic body, hunched solidly over the piano, hardly moved while nimble fingers extracted from it the most awesome and delicate sounds. These virtuoso musicians resemble dancers in their integrated appeal to both eye and ear. They play on one´s responsiveness with the entire force of body and mind, communicating emotions that can range from religious devotion to sensual ectasy. After intermission Gould launches into the Burleske by Richard Strauss, a mini-concerto that gives us the oppotunity to marvel at his dazzling bravura. This piece is not one of Strauss´s better known compositions, and Gould´s selecting it for his West Coast debut again indicates a degree of nonconformity. But there is no doubt that he is a technical wizard. Triplet chords and arpeggios literally fly off the keyboard, and the treacherous descending scales ripple like pearls. The pianist is absolute in command of his instrument. Yet it all looks so easy. There are no exaggerated contortions, no deliberate attempts at showmanship. His hands remain close to the keys, and the wrists are horizontal except when his left hand is conducting. As soon as the piece ends, Gould again becomes awkward. The applause seems to startle him. When not making music, he becomes almost a different person, rather shy and embarrassed, like a young boy surprised to have evoked so much acclaim. After a quick, almost perfunctory bow to the audience, he waves to the orchestra but does not shake hands with the concertmaster as soloists usually do. He scurries back-stage ahead of the conductor and comes back briefly for a single curtain call. What about the future?On the basis of the concert in California 1957 it was pretty hard - both for the audience and the critics - to tell the future for this young brilliant pianist. However, today we know that the private invidual as well as the artist Glenn Gould was to meet a lot of challenges during his lifetime.Probably, Gould is associated with more mystery than most other pianists and musicians in general. Was he completely innocent in this matter? Gould´s life was cut off by a premature death at age fifty. If this had not happened - how would this great musician manage his career? We can just speculate, but there are several indications that this emminent artist suffered both physically and psychical already in his early twenties. Gould´s "neurotic" mannerisms were integral to his artistic personality. They were part of a behavioral style that he seemed to need for expressing what he felt about himself as a highly nervous creative artist, striving constantly to excel and to become the world´s foremost pianist. He was special but nt secure. He wanted people to notice his vulnerability as well as his genius. In 1959 Glenn Gould reached his maximum, fifty-one concerts, after which there was a gradual tapering off until 1964, when he stopped appearing in public. Those eight or nine years when Glenn was heavily engaged in traveling and giving concerts proved stressful because of his fundamental revulsion against public performance, but also because of the conflicting demands stemming from his multiple ambitions to conduct, to record, to maintain his solitude, to compose, and to write. It was not so much an abrupt withdrawal from the concert stage in 1964 as a gradual petering out of an activity he had never really liked, and one that had led to increasing amounts of strife and disconfort over the preceding years. After his "retirement" from stage Glenn preferred an involvement in radio, recording, and television work, which interested him much more than the giving of concerts. Glenn was only thirty-one years old when he stopped playing in public, and at first it wasn´t exactly clear whether this was to be a temporary situation or whether his "retirement" was permanent. However - Gould never again played in public. He became ever more convinced that it would be "a terribly retrogressive step to retreat back into the embrace of a concert." In his latest years it became clear that Glenn Gould went in for a career as an orchestral conductor. To be a successful conductor requires diplomacy, a willingness to face the public - and robust health. One might doubt that Gould with his many psychological and physical handicaps would have gotten nearly as Daniel Barenboim, Vladimir Ashenazy, and Christoph Eschenbach - who have become successful conductors.
Parts of this essay are literally drawn from Peter F. Ostwald´s book The Ecstasy and Tragedy
of Genius Glenn Gould.
The CDs I would like to recommend are:
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Berit Kvinge Tjøme
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