Glenn
Gould ...
By SELMA SAWAYA
ONE OF THE most gifted-and summed it up admirably in a re-
still highly controversial-art- view of a Gould performance in
ists on the musical scene today is March, 1958. Of the aforemen-
pianist Glenn Gould. tioned eccentricities of perform-
Since making his American de- ance, he writes:
but in 1955, Gould has inspired, "It would be easy to dismiss all
through public performances, de- this as deliberate exhibitionism,
bates between critics, both pro- but after watching it with some
fessional and amateur. The critical amusement the other night, and
storms center around his "ec- listening to what emerged from
centricities," which he has culti- the piano, I came to the conclu
vated to a point of perfection sel- sion that his manner is a perfectly
dom seen nowadays, particularly sincere expression of his Gesamt-
in musical artists. persoenlichkeit. He is obviously an
His "odd habits" include such original, whom one must accept
practices as continually wearing on his own terms . .. none of his
two pairs of gloves, no matter physical flamboyance enters into
what the weather, soaking his what one hears."
hands in warm-to-hot water just Gould is original, in the sense
before each performance, and wav- of being rather unique: at 26, he
ing his arms, beating time with is extremely young to be one of
the top-ranking pianists-or any
kind of musical artist, for that
matter-in the United States; few
other concert artists acknowledged
to be among the "best" in their
fields can boast of being so young,
or of having come as far in as
short a time as Gould has.
ORN IN Toronto, Ontario, in
1932, Gould began his mas-
tery of the art of the piano be-
fore he had fully mastered the art
of speech.
From the agesofethree years, he
has devoed himself to the study
of piano, almost to the exclusion
of everything else. By the time he
was 10 years old, he was studying
with Alberto Guerrero of the
yal Conservatory ofMusic in
Toronto; his frst (and only other)
teacher had been his mother,
For eight years, he continued to
study with Guerrero, meanwhile
composer making his formal Canadian debut
his feet and humming (usually in a concert with the Toronto
off-key) with the music he is Symphony Orchestra in 1947, at
playing. the age of 14. Since 1950, he has
had no formal teacher of piano;
ONE SCHOOL of critics, at pres- he devotes his practice time to per-
ent much the smaller, insists hecting his pianistic technique by
that all of these physical pyrotech- Since-
nies detracts from the ultimate buts-In recital inAWangton
musical quality of the perform- DC Jnury,155, andincon-
ane, and the ultimate musical.C.,January, 19
cert with the Detroit Symphony
perfection of the artist himself. Orchestra, March, 1956-his career
This is the view held by the has been an extremely busy and
more conservative critics and con- fruitful one, both in number of
cert-goers, who will even frown performances and in the more ab-
on fine conductors like Leonard stract realm of the artist's de-
Bernstein for too much "exhibi- velopment
tionism." One critic, writing in
Musical America after Gould's T HIS Detroit debut, Gould
Carnegie Hall concert in Decem- AT HI
ber, 957, aid:performed Beethoven's "Con-
ber", 1957Gould, said (the program) certo No. 4 in G major;" two years
with an erratic freedom and su- later he performed the same work
perb showmanship that reminded at the May Festival here.
me strongly of the conducting of It is safe to say that his Detroit
Leopold Stokowski," and then performance did not approach the
grudgingly added, "although in terms of style,rma-
Mr. Gould's case the effects are turity displayed, or any criteria
probably less calculated." chosen. In those intervening two
probab aly ss calculaped." years, Glenn Gould came a long
In the early days of his post- way,
debut career, most of Gould's Of course, this is not to say that
critic, were inclined to lean on he beg.n "growing" only when he
the side of the writer cited above, finally made his American debut;
Partly, perhaps, because they were but he would probably be the last
not used to any contemporary art- to deny that the number of con
ists who conducted themselves cert tours he made and the num-
with such abandon on the nor- ber of recording sessions he
nally - dignified concert stage, "sweated through" did not sub-
members of the audience at stantially help him along the road
Gould's recitals were taken aback to musical maturity,
by his concert calisthenics and He had made tours on all the
temporarily forgot to listen to the important concert courses in Ca-
music produced by the performer nada after his' Toronto debut, but
in the fascination of watching him it remained for his Detroit per-
perform. formances and his first recording,
that of Bach's "Goldberg Varia-
TtIS WAS a mistake, and was tions," to give him the push on the
soon corrected by the more high road to international mu-
perceptive critics and listeners. sical recognition.
The critic from the New Yorker
THE YEAR 1957 was a good In-
Selma Sa w a y a, one of ternational year for Gould; he
Gould's most avid fans, inter. went to Russia in May, gave four
viewed him when he was in concerts in Moscow and another
Ann Arbor for the May Fes- four in Leningrad, playing to sold-
tival last year. out houses and receiving "near-
hysterical" response in both. He
SUNDAY, MAY 3, 1959
also stopped at Berlin and Vien- the year he will devote to composi- and the performer must imitate
na, where he was received as en- tion. the vocal inflection."
thusiastically. "Before I'm 70, I'd like to have
It was his repertoire, not his made some good recordings and HIS FUSSINESS about pianos
manner of performing, that caused composed some chamber 'music, and other attendant equip-
consternation in the Soviet Union. finished a couple of symphonies ment is legendary by now -he
In Ann Arbor last year, Gould said and an opera," he remarked hope- once insisted that a piano key-
that his "most enjoyable two weeks fully. board be lowered one twenty-fifth
were in the Soviet Union. of an inch, which makes his in-
"I played a great deal of Bach, OF HIS "eccentricities," Gould sistence on merely another piano
which was a sort of novelty for says little. His off-stage habits seem pale by comparison,
them. Most of their artists have a have drawn as much comment as He chooses his piano according
very conservative repertoire-19th his on-stage "peculiarities." to the kind of music he is to play
centui y conservative. The Western A confirmed hypochondriac, he when recording; for Bach, a piano
music I played caused a furore.,, eats graham crackers and milk di- needs one tone, for Beethoven, it
luted with bottled spring water for must have a different tone, and
LAST YEAR, Gould appeared at lunch, swallows a wide variety of for the moderns, like Schoenberg,
four major music festivals pills at odd times during the day, it must have a tone different from
and bundles up against the weath- all the others. He also carries his
two in America and two in Europe: er with an overcoat over a jacket own piano stool around with him,
the May Festival here and the over a sweater over a shirt, even to and from each concert and re-
Vancouver International Festival in May, cording session.
m British Columbia, and the Salz- The two pairs of gloves which
he also wears in all weather is ON HIS reluctance to be so-
merely to protect his hands from cially active, Gould insists, "If
chill; and he goes even further by an artist wants to use his mind
carefully removing the gloves just for creative work, cutting oneself
before the performance and then off from society is a necessary
soaking his hands in a basin of thing."
water, beginning with lukewarm He retains a special fondness for
and continuing until the water is Washington, D.C., which he claims
comfortably hot. is his favorite American city,
On stage, Gould is likely to do "Having lived in dull cities most
almost anything during a per- of my life, I find it a delightful
formanee, from playing through place. The one closest to it is Vic-
an entire concert with his legs toria, B.C. New York is stimulat-
casually crossed, as he did in De- ing, though," he added.
r troit last winter, to stomping It is fairly certain that Glenn
vigorously with his foot in time Gould will continue to find maoy
to the music, as he did in Ann Ar- things exciting, with the fresh
bor last spring. (Those who miss- manner in which he approaches
ed him last May Festival will have everything from his concert ap-
the opportunity to see him perform pearances and recording sessions
in Ann Arbor this fall as part of to his "extra-curricular" activities
the Choral Union series.) as composer and young-man-in-
search-of-life generally.
IN ADDITION to foot-stamping, He is sane enough to realize that
pianist Gould will often beat time with continued success depends on con-
his free hand, wag his elbows and tinual growth and that continual
burg Festival (where he appeared his head -often he seems to be growth depends on constant work
with the Concertgebouw Orches- hitting the keys with his nose or -and work is one thing Gould will
tra) and the Berlin Festival. chin-and then suddenly, when he tackle with characteristic eager-
This year Gould has finished finishes a passage, will drop his ness.
his third North American tour; ands and let them dangle life- . f
he still complains that these cross- lessly at his side as though he
country jaunts do not leave him were completely exhausted ;'
enough time for composition, Again, he may sit, during a rest i
which is his second love but which passage, wagging his hands vigor-
is rapidly replacing performing as ously to restore the circulation As
the sole object of his affections. the New Yorker aptly put it He
At the Stratford, Ontario, music sives the impression of a man
1956 Gold is-subduing the piano by jujitsu.'' ''
festival in July, 1956, Gould dis- Another of his minor habits i
played his triple - threat talent. ritating to a few people, but par-
During a two-hour program, her
appered a pour soist, - ticularly to sound engineers, is his
appeared as piano soloist, return- "crooning." Gould will often be-
ed to hear the first concert per- come so immersed in the music
formance of his first string quar- that he does not realize he is sing-
tet, and then followed that by con- ing along with his pln.ying-and
ducting Schoenberg's "Ode to Na- he has ruined many a recording
poleon Bonaparte." session when a playback of mas-
ter tape indicates that Gould's
HIS "DREAM" is composing; he voice comes over louder than the
hopes ultimately to give up piano's.
concert tours and limit his per- There are times when he realizes
forming year to only two months, that he is making additional mu-
during which time he will play sic, and he says in defense of his
almost exclusively for recording off-key singing: "The piano is
sessions. The other ten months of basically a percussive instrument personality
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