Glenn Gould's "Appassionata"

[Schenkerian]

Speaking of Glenn Gould (and I have a friend who is a fan and just won't be disavowed of his admiration for this idiosyncratic musician) - try this for a funereal performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Kljp4_60U

Is this Beethoven or Gould?

[Megan]

Do you play piano Schenkerian?

What is your preferred performance of the Appassionata?

And how can a pianist play while feeling the music and passion and not show expression?

[Schenkerian]

No, I haven't touch the piano for ages and am selling it.

Let's let Stephen Kovacevich briefly answer your question as he's one of my favourites in this repertoire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=optpOjeyXOo

[Peter]

It's clearly NOT what Beethoven intended. Gould did this with the Brahms 1st concerto and Bernstein gave a talk explaining his discomfort.

[Schenkerian]

Of course, Bernstein had his own idiosyncrasies but I think Gould was generally a performer who didn't stick to the score. It was always all about him. His leaden readings of the 'warhorses', like the Brahms, did nothing to add to our understanding of these great works. On top of that, his groaning on recordings just annoyed me and others. Don't even get me started on his Bach!!

[Schenkerian]

Here's Stephen Kovacevich playing last year at Wigmore Hall: Schubert's D960. Kovacevich is past his prime (having recovered from a stroke) but he never indulges in histrionics; he's a fiercely intelligent and intense musician who still manages a gentle sense of humour. If you have good speakers you'll hear Stephen with his characteristic humming along!! This is a feature of many of his recordings, but it's not as bad as Brendel, Ax and Gould.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBRf9GH0o2U

[Peter]

Here's Stephen Kovacevich playing last year at Wigmore Hall: Schubert's D960. Kovacevich is past his prime (having recovered from a stroke) but he never indulges in histrionics; he's a fiercely intelligent and intense musician who still manages a gentle sense of humour. If you have good speakers you'll hear Stephen with his characteristic humming along!! This is a feature of many of his recordings, but it's not as bad as Brendel, Ax and Gould.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBRf9GH0o2U

Interesting, I didn't know he'd suffered a stroke. Here is a revealing interview with him from 1983.

[Schenkerian]

Thanks for the link to the Kovacevich interview!! I dropped everything when I saw it and have heard it all now. My house is ringing loudly to the sounds of the Chopin Competition but I just had to stop and listen to my favourite pianist speak. Such eloquence and class!! And the interviewer was intelligent (only sorry David Dubal couldn't get the pianist's name right!). I'm sending the interview around to friends as soon as I've finished typing this.

What did you think about Dubal's notions that the bucolic life is to be found in the music of both Schubert and Beethoven? Kovacevich wasn't having any of it with Beethoven!!

Great musician and, FWIW, God's gift to women!!!

[Peter]

Thanks for the link to the Kovacevich interview!! I dropped everything when I saw it and have heard it all now. My house is ringing loudly to the sounds of the Chopin Competition but I just had to stop and listen to my favourite pianist speak. Such eloquence and class!! And the interviewer was intelligent (only sorry David Dubal couldn't get the pianist's name right!). I'm sending the interview around to friends as soon as I've finished typing this.

What did you think about Dubal's notions that the bucolic life is to be found in the music of both Schubert and Beethoven? Kovacevich wasn't having any of it with Beethoven!!

Great musician and, FWIW, God's gift to women!!!

Well you don't have to look further than the 6th Symphony and of course Beethoven spent his summers in the country. God's gift? well Argerich obviously thought so!

[Schenkerian]

Dubal was specifically referring to Schubert's D960 and Beethoven's Op. 101.

[Arciom Nesterovich]

Speaking of Glenn Gould (and I have a friend who is a fan and just won't be disavowed of his admiration for this idiosyncratic musician) - try this for a funereal performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Kljp4_60U

Is this Beethoven or Gould?

Tried to find score of Glenn Gould's version (found only this https://musescore.com/sheetmusic?tex...20Appassionata) or there is no differences between original by Beethoven and Gould's interpretation?

[Quijote]

It's clearly NOT what Beethoven intended. Gould did this with the Brahms 1st concerto and Bernstein gave a talk explaining his discomfort.

Jesus, what a betrayal of the composer's intentions! A more interesting question would be: does it work?

[Peter]

Jesus, what a betrayal of the composer's intentions! A more interesting question would be: does it work?

I don't think it does and in any case the work is meant to be by Beethoven not Gould! It's one thing to practice it like that for personal insights into the work, but quite another to clearly alter the composer's intentions just to be different.

[Quijote]

I don't think it does and in any case the work is meant to be by Beethoven not Gould! It's one thing to practice it like that for personal insights into the work, but quite another to clearly alter the composer's intentions just to be different.

Yes, the same goes for Gould's Brahms concerto n? 1. An interesting tangent, but no more than that. Whatever our opinion, these recordings are documentary testaments, so to speak, and of great importance. It all helps to keep the debate going among professional performers and musicologists.

[Quijote]

But yeah, Gould's performance above of Brahm's piano concerto no. 1 - which we may describe as "an old blue-rinse taking the zimmer frame out for a walk after overindulging on the fernet-branca" - leaves much to be desired.