Glenn Gould on recording

Pianist Glenn Gould discussed the recording process with Yehudi Menuhin completing the playback of a Bach gigue:

Now, Yehudi, you’ve got to admit that you would not be likely to encounter a sound like that in the concert hall…

The point is that, if I were to play that piece in a concert hall, as I have done many times – in fact, it used to be one of my party pieces – I would not be free to select the perspective we just heard; it represents a tight, clinical, X-ray-like view of that work, precise and at the same time intimate, which enables me to dissect it in a special way. On the platform, I would be forced to accept a compromised perspective – one which would be more or less equally acceptable to the listener down at the lip of the stage and to the standee up beyond the far balcony. I don’t need to tell you that, ultimately, one ends up with a perspective which is appropriate, if if at all, only for the listener in row L of the orchestra.”

Menuhin, Yehudi & Davis, Curtis (1979) The Music of Man. Toronto: Methuen, p.290-291.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

,

Featured Content

Determination not to be hurried
“Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.” – Henry David Thoreau
People must hear me
“I cannot tell you how much I love to play for people. Would you believe it – sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.” […]
Piano
Beethoven’s duet
Beethoven was premiering his piano duet, March (op. 45) with duet partner Ferdinand Ries.  When a young count spoke loudly to a lady friend in the room next door, Beethoven jumped up and shouted “I will not play for such swine.” Source: Arganbright, Nancy (2007) “The Piano Duet: A medium for Today”, The American Music […]
The creative learning process
“Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.” — Arthur Koestler
Instrumental stereotypes
Insider jokes are not just for White House Correspondents’ Assn. Dinners or ESPN kibitzers or Academy Awards emcees. They also crop up in discussions about symphony orchestra musicians — a society unto itself. There are jibes and even sober-minded studies that characterize personality types according to the instruments they play. Who are the string players? […]
The origin of the interval
Plays in the Jacobean period (16th century England) were divided into acts to enable the theatre company to manage the candles. Source: Martin White, University of Bristol. “Shakespeare by Candlelight”, The Times, Cited in The Australian, 30 November 2012.
Tchaikovsky at Cambridge
In 1893, Tchaikovsky was awarded an honorary doctorate at Cambridge University. Charles Villiers Stanford was involved organising the occasion. He recalled: “In the spring of 1892 we set on foot the organization of the movement to celebrate the Jubilee of the University Musical Society in 1893. The first step taken was the invitation of Verdi […]
You don’t need permission to create
Gus Fairbairn (aka Alabaster dePlume) on the success of his album, To Cy & Lee: I was not expecting that with this piece of work. I made them not thinking that anyone would want to listen to them. It all goes to show that no one will give you permission to make the great things […]
Philosophy
“Philosophy is doubt.” – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French writer Rosenberg, Max (1955) Introduction to Philosophy.  New York: Philosophical Library, p. 14.