Glenn Gould & The Goldberg Variations Video

As long as I can remember I have loved Glenn Gould. Gould, née Gold (his family changed the spelling of their surname due to rampant Antisemitism in Canada- they were not Jewish) was an example of a certain macho artistic sentiment in North America in the 50's, not unlike Jackson Pollack's Action Paintings, Jack Kerouac's typewritten stream of consciousness voice, John Coltrane's Sheets of Sound, and James Dean's Method Acting.

Gould's eccentricities are famous- the singing while playing, the chair, the gloves, the refusal to touch or be touched by other people.

But it is the interpretations of Bach, and specifically the Goldberg Variations that are his legacy. The 1955 recording is like Jimi Hendrix playing Machine Gun at the Fillmore East, with unparalleled technical mastery and speed, achieved in no small part from Gould's obsessive tinkering with the mechanics of his piano, and his refusal to use the pedals.  I think I prefer the 1981 recording for it's more mature and introspective interpretation of the work.

UPDATED: Thanks to FOAJ Matt for sending me this link about the Goldberg's from Jeremy Denk's blog.

Cross-posted to A Jeremiad

Simone Dinnerstein

I listened to Simone Dinnerstein's interpretation of The Goldberg Variations yesterday. Dinnerstein lives in Park Slope, and her husband teaches at PS 321. When this CD came out, it knocked the White Stripes off the #1 position on Amazon, and went to #1 on the Billboard charts. I grew up listening to the Glenn Gould recordings, which I love. I think Dinnerstein's recording is moving and sharp, but I don't trust my classical filter- it's outside my comfort zone. The Goldberg Variations are a super punk 2 album rock opera, so maybe a good introduction for classical newbies.