60 years ago today........
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On the evening of April 10, 1964 — that is, 60 years ago Wednesday — the Canadian virtuoso Glenn Gould stepped away from the piano at the end of his concert at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles and revolutionized the recording industry.
There was no announcement at that landmark moment in L.A.; only the ensuing circumstance would tell the story. For the Wilshire Ebell recital marked the end of the 31-year-old star’s performing career. He would never play another note in public.
He was the first — and possibly the only — classical musician to shun public performances entirely. Henceforth, his entire output would be heard only via records and videos.
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Interesting, eh?
I've seen some videos of him "tweaking" his recordings. I believe changing, in a subtle way, dynamics, and splicing one performance into another.
Pop performers have been doing that forever...
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Interesting, eh?
I've seen some videos of him "tweaking" his recordings. I believe changing, in a subtle way, dynamics, and splicing one performance into another.
Pop performers have been doing that forever...
@George-K said in 60 years ago today........:
Interesting, eh?
I've seen some videos of him "tweaking" his recordings. I believe changing, in a subtle way, dynamics, and splicing one performance into another.
Pop performers have been doing that forever...
I read somewhere that Alfred Brendel (and presumably lots of others) spliced his recordings up so that they're a combination of a huge number of takes.
I think I prefer the classic jazz approach where the band plays as a band - play the head, play the solos, close - all in one take. If they make a bad mistake, do the whole thing again.
I'm an old fart, but I like music that can be played live, and the recording reflects a live performance, or is a live performance.
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Gould only played his piano that was set up to his personal spec. Not sure how many he owned but they were all prepped identically.
The King’s University just a few blocks from where I live obtained one of Gould’s instruments. When I owned my P 135 my tuner, Bruce, had the contract to tune and maintain the University’s Music Dept. pianos. The Chairman told Bruce that he was not regulate or change anything with the Gould instrument other than keep it in tune. Bruce said the action was so heavy that in his opinion, it was next to unresponsive. Even the Department Chair thought it was unplayable and not much better than a child worn old upright of the sort found in church basements..
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Heard a story from Frank Mohr (Horowitz’s tech) once. His first concert tuning was an afternoon recital for Gould. He went, tuned the piano, and fount the keys to be horribly dirty, so he cleaned them. Gould came out for the recital and had a conniption over the keys being cleaned as he preferred the sticky feel. So Mohr asked if he could try something, ran backstage, got a can of hairspray,, and sprayed the keys. Gould liked it so much that he always demanded that after.
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Heard a story from Frank Mohr (Horowitz’s tech) once. His first concert tuning was an afternoon recital for Gould. He went, tuned the piano, and fount the keys to be horribly dirty, so he cleaned them. Gould came out for the recital and had a conniption over the keys being cleaned as he preferred the sticky feel. So Mohr asked if he could try something, ran backstage, got a can of hairspray,, and sprayed the keys. Gould liked it so much that he always demanded that after.
Gould….
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Gould was crazy, idiosyncratic, annoying, arrogant...and fun.
Everyone knows about the famous Brahms 1 introduction with Bernstein. But I really enjoyed listening to Gould's thinking explained. Also, the attention that Gould payed to the inner voices.
The presenter, Ben Laude, is seen a LOT at the Tonebase YouTube channel. He's an accomplished pianist, and his conversations with Garrick Ohlson, Hamelin and others are great.
Something as "mundane" as the 1st movement of Moonlight...
Link to video
