Comments on: Glenn Gould Variations: a two-day event in Toronto inspired by Gould's awesomeness

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:31:00 +0000

Yeah, whenever I think of the Goldberg Variations, it’s the ‘Aria da Capo’ that runs through my head.

By: Fiona Lotz

Fiona Lotz — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:08:00 +0000

My father was in The Idea of North.

By: vinculture

vinculture — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:48:00 +0000

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Gould’s ‘Aria da Capo’ It left me speechless for several minutes. It takes a lot make me shut up :)

By: PaulDavisTheFirst

PaulDavisTheFirst — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Gould didn’t defy description. He was an incredibly talented pianist. He also happened to have a (then) iconoclastic attitude to performance vs. recording, which has subsequently become more widespread. It is painful to see the line of people with way less talent than Gould had in his right pinky finger crown themselves (or more often, be crowned) with his mantle just because they did something strange or had a more open relationship with technology and new ideas than their peers. Such things are wonderful and welcome, but they do not (by themselves) make the person into someone who is even in the vicinity of Gould’s talent and abilities. The reason why Gould was so notable was precisely this combination of incredible talent with an attitude more typically found in people that are just not that good at their chosen art. You don’t get to be like Gould by sharing only one of those attributes, as most of us are unfortunately saddled with.

By: just_a_user

just_a_user — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Yes a great movie and the NFB is great. But the movie was produced by Rhombus Media. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108328/

By: futnuh

futnuh — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:36:00 +0000

If you haven’t seen it, “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould” is an awesome but idiosyncratic biopic in keeping with the equally idiosyncratic pianist. Colm Fiore does a great job as Gould. NFB at its finest.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:26:00 +0000

That could well be it. Gould certainly didn’t wont for quirkiness of opinion otherwise. We recall, for example, the renegade responsible for Gould’s all-time favorite version of the Goldberg Variations….

By: Genre Slur

Genre Slur — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:24:00 +0000

They were, but Gould’s ‘manic’ self resented Chopin’s ‘reflective’ self. Just a thought.

By: Brian Donohue

Brian Donohue — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 01:09:00 +0000

This just reminds me of one of the impenetrable mysteries of musical art: that such a “renegade” would hate a composer like Chopin, whose picture should be next to the dictionary definition of that word. It’s especially weird when you consider that Gould brought to Bach the same vocal inspiration and harmonic insight that Chopin brought to the piano. Whenever I think about it, I wind up shrugging and thinking, “maybe they were too much alike…”

By: Alissa Mower Clough

Alissa Mower Clough — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 01:08:00 +0000

Americans never got to really know who he was. But yes, awesomeness is just the right word. Possibly the first classical player to say “Screw concerts. Recordings are where it’s at.”

My only regret (other than not running into him while I was visiting Toronto in the late 70′s…hey, I hung out at Fran’s!) is that he never hooked up with Ray Manzarek….something tells me that the meeting would be EPIC.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:43:00 +0000

When I drive east on Ste-Catherine street and approach Atwater - something I haven’t done in years – I usually suddenly remember “this is where I was when I heard that Glenn Gould had died.”

After he retired from public performances, he worked quite a bit on ideas, and on ‘Ideas’ (the CBC’s show). If you can dig out his ‘The Idea of North’, it’s worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7I-OONSHdU

By: inkfumes

inkfumes — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:28:00 +0000

It’s as good as Gould…