Golden Gould

“The more you know about Gould, the less you know about him,” Michèle Hozer said. “What adds to his success is that he is such a mystery. That’s why we stay fascinated. I hope in the film we made we don’t try to say we have the definitive answer, that we leave it open. In fact, I believe that every generation will look at him differently.”
Hozer, along with Peter Raymont, have made a new film about Glenn Gould, “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould.”

Read more about it here in the NY Times, it opens Friday in NYC.

The Canadian South paw vs. the Austrian Primster

In the early 1970's Canadian pianist Glenn Gould upset the apple-cart with his recordings of Mozart's Piano Sonatas. Quick tempos and detached notes had critics and listeners alike crying foul, "this is not Mozart!" Gould ignored their abuse saying that he only liked Mozart's early sonatas where he was influenced by C.P.E. Bach. He topped this off by say the problem with Mozart is that he lived too long, simplified his composing style and did not fulfill his contrapuntal potential.

Thirty years later with the early instrument boom and bust, listeners are used to what Gould did so long ago. It turns out that the creamy-legato that we were used to in old performances/ recordings was wrong. Mozart didn't play that way and ironically, according to Beethoven, his playing was very much like Gould's, with clipped notes and fast tempos.

Not quite sure? Listen to the Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 and hear for yourself.

host Randy Anderson

It's your birthday too?

Paying attention to birthdays as we do in the radio business, one can't help but notice some interesting coincidences in who was born on which day. Now, Beverly Sills and Miles Davis shared a birthday. Can you imagine them both checking their horoscope and wondering if these two have anything in common? Well, they...they, were both musicians!

Some days have few musical births and others are chock-a-block with them, like the 25th and 26th of September. On those fecund days we have Rameau, Shostakovich, Colin Davis, Glenn Gould, Alfred Cortot, Charles Munch and George Gershwin. Since so many of these musicians were also pianists, the Piano programming this Sunday came together quite easily. It's call the Birthday show and I hope you tune in this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC and KTXI.

host, Randy Anderson