 |
| Cover of Glenn Gould |
Born: September 25, 1932 * Toronto, Canada
Died: Oct 4, 1982 - Greater Toronto, Canada
The remarkable Canada pianist (also organist, conductor, and musician), Glenn (Herbert) Gould, was born into a musical loved ones: Edvard Grieg was a first cousin involving his mother's grandfather, father was an amateur violinist, and his awesome mother played piano and also organ. Gould's mother was his only teacher until he was ten. When this individual was three years old, that became evident that he held exceptional musical aptitude, which included absolute pitch and even the opportunity to read staff notation. At five, he began to prepare, and played his own small compositions for family and close friends. At the age of six Gould ended up being taken to his first musical performance which was Josef Hofmann's first appearance in Toronto. This created a lasting and essential impression upon the child.
Robert Fulford, a distinguished Canada author, met Gould when they had been both nine and the a couple of families were next-door neighbours. They wrote: "Even as a child Glenn was remote because he was working such as hell to be a great gentleman. He had a tremendous feeling and also loving affection for audio. . . It was an utter, comprehensive feeling. He knew whom he was and in which direction he was going.
At the age of ten, Gould commenced lessons at the Royal Sunroom of Music in Gta. Alberto Guerrero was his piano tutor; he studied organ using Frederick C. Silvester and idea with Leo Smith. Gould played in 1944, at the age of 14, in the annual Kiwanis Music Festivity and won the cello trophy. It was to be the only real competition Gould would enter, with regard to he later came to be clearly opposed to the idea of young artists competing with each other and indeed in order to competition of any sort. In 1945 he or she passed the associateship examination like a solo performer at the Noble Conservatory, signifying a professional amount of attainment. In 1946, at the chronilogical age of 14, he passed the music activity theory examinations and ended up being awarded a diploma with maximum honors. Gould continued piano classes with Alberto Guerrero until 1952.
Of significant effect upon the teenage Gould have been: Artur Schnabe, Rosalyn Tureck's recordings involving Bach ("upright, with a sense of repose as well as positiveness") and Leopold Stokowski, about whom Gould might later write and produce Stokowski: The Portrait for the Canadian Televison broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Gould's first public overall performance was in 1945 on the organ, any concert which was reviewed beneath the headline "Boy, age 12, Demonstrates Genius As Organist." Throughout 1946 he made his debut while soloist with orchestra at a Noble Conservatory concert performing Beethoven's Last Piano Concerto. Regarding this event, Gould wrote that it required tiny preparation because he had owned or operated Schnabel's recording for over two years as well as knew every nuance. The following year Gould literally same concerto with the Toronto Concert and a reviewer wrote: "he sitting at the piano a child between professors, and he talked with these as one with authority.His first public recital is at 1947 and included Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, and Liszt: "genius as profound for their own was at the keyboard" said one reviewer. Gould gave his / her first network radio recital for your CBC in 1950, beginning his prolonged relationship with broadcasting and also recording.
On the evening associated with 11 January 1955, Glenn Gould produced his debut in The big apple ("Debutown" as he called it) and the next evening signed a recording deal with Columbia Masterworks (CBS). Gould's 1st recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) happened at the CBS studios inside June 1955. The report won instant acclaim, was a best seller, and unveiled Gould's career as a fully older international artist. Gould went on to generate over 60 recordings along with CBS Masterworks/Sony Classical.
In '57 Gould toured Europe for the first time, beginning from two weeks in the Soviet Union. He or she thus became the first Canada (and the first North American) to execute in the Soviet Union, and he managed it - in the midst of the Frosty War - to thirstily enthusiastic audiences and experts. Also during his European excursion, Gould performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with all the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan, and the a pair of artists thereafter remained faithful admirers of each other's function. In 1960 Gould made his / her first appearance on United states television with Leonard Bernstein and the The big apple Philharmonic. He was by then a new well-known figure on Canadian television as well as was present regularly for the airwaves in his home region during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Gould's concert profession continued to grow during the early 1960’s till, without any fanfare, he made his / her last public appearance like a pianist on 10 04 1964 in a Los Angeles recital. This kind of early retirement from open public performance was prompted partly by a realization that the physically demanding life of a touring musician and performer was preventing him coming from realizing his many other pursuits. In fact, Gould did not think of themself primarily as a pianist; this individual was equally committed to creating, broadcasting, composing, conducting, as well as experimenting with technology. Gould also accepted that he had developed an intense detest for performing (Gould: "at live concert events I feel demeaned, like a vaudevillian") and thought that he could better function music in a recording studio room than in the concert area.
Gould has sometimes been termed as a hermit and a recluse. He was not. This individual chose for himself any solitary existence which stored interaction at a safe long distance, showing himself primarily by means of his recordings, broadcasts, and also writings, providing self-protection but as well allowing a great deal of self-revelation. As he as soon as said. he had "opted out creatively".
Glenn Gould's viewpoint and the core of his or her identity were most plainly revealed in his broadcast/recording The Idea of Upper. To him, the North symbolized solitude, independence, reasonableness, courage, elusiveness, spiritual techniques, strength of character, sticking to laws, moral rectitude, as well as peace. He was unpleasant with the Mediterranean temperament in which manifests itself in vivid colors, displays of enthusiasm, and personal display.
In 1981 Gould left from his custom involving not re-recording a work and, 25 years after his very first recording of the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), gone into the same New York facilities for his second documenting of the work with which he became so closely identified. Gould looked at the two interpretations as considerably different because he came to understand the Variations not as separate as well as distinct exercises but because belonging to a larger whole, together with one rhythmic pulse, tranquility, and ideology underlying your entire work and forming an obvious unity of composition. Often acutely aware of the possibilities technology delivers, Gould was also motivated in his selection to re-record the Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) from the vast changes in recording engineering during the previous 25 years.
A couple of months before his death, Glenn Gould shaped a chamber orchestra within Toronto consisting of some people in the Toronto Symphony Band with himself as conductor. They was particularly proud of their particular recording together of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, a piece that had long been special for you to him and which he transcribed with regard to piano and recorded.
By having a remarkable degree of self-awareness and self-knowledge, Glenn Gould understood what he wanted to achieve and how he wanted to stay his life - plus both he succeeded totally. What some have considered peculiar was in fact, only distinct. Even though he chose to be described as a spectator rather than a participant inthe matters of the world, he never discontinued to have a child-like, weyed interest in all that happening around him.
Glenn Gould gathered a sizable and loyal group of pals with whom he continued to be in contact over the telephone and who he received in Gta with eager enthusiasm. These types of friends describe him while gentle, kind, funny, captivating, warm and loyal. Glenn Gould would be a character to be sure, but one which never strayed from his hunt for the ideal, and one who cared significantly. He was a solitary person, but he touched and also uplifted the lives of many. Glenn Gould perished in Toronto on Oct 4, 1982, after having a break down stroke.
