[extrabigmehdi]

   
 And even if you want to sound ludicrous, can you out-troll Gould's Mozart?

Well I  was a bit curious and listened some of "Gould's Mozart" on youtube. I'm not an expert of Mozart, and I failed to see the troll part.   I  think,  that Gould didn't  shred apart some music he didn't like.  I  believe, he tried  to put some intelligence in something he found dumb in first instance. At least, I  found  listening his Mozart is  less idiotic, than listening the "The Well-Tuned Piano" played by La Monte Young.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

   
And this guy... 
 

 
He has suffered from Turrets Syndrome all his life and it suddenly stops when he plays piano! This is the best recording of the concerto's probably since Gould's.

 
Someone suffering of Turrets Syndrome, playing piano, I have a laugh just by thinking about it. An interesting story. Will have a look to this ...

 

[SunTanScanMan]

I'm not as enamoured of Bach's piano pieces (except perhaps the Italian concerto) whether by Gould or anyone else.
However, I flat out enjoy Gould's Mozart sonatas (Sony label). I find his interpretations simply beautiful, but also interesting and therefore very engaging. I really like Uchida's Mozart sonatas, but I have found myself investing more time on Gould.
 
One issue however with the Gould/Sony recordings, is that the placement of the mic seems to be too close to one section of the piano on some tracks, particularly at the start of Sonata no.18 or sonata no. 16. As a result the volume and the track comes out unbalanced imo. But this is few and far between.

 

[LugBug1]

   
Someone suffering of Turrets Syndrome, playing piano, I have a laugh just by thinking about it. An interesting story. Will have a look to this ...

There is a theory that Mozart had Turrets Syndrome..  

 

[icebear]

....  
He has suffered from Turrets Syndrome all his life and it suddenly stops when he plays piano! This is the best recording of the concerto's probably since Gould's. Every note has a life of its own. Such playful joy! An extraordinary recording.   

 
What I realized lately (OK late starter maybe

) with Gould is, that he gives a meaning to the pause between the notes.
I listened to his Beethoven concertos over my speakers and with my new M2. Subtle nuances in dynamic were much more apparent than with my old amp. The natural reverb of the piano in it's full length, Gould waiting until the last hint of sound died off before continuing ... to get that exact timing of what he is doing is crucial to appreciate his playing. Otherwise it just sounds off and strange and doesn't come together. Suddenly it all made perfect sense and it became obvious what a genius he was.

 

[LugBug1]

   
What I realized lately (OK late starter maybe

) with Gould is, that he gives a meaning to the pause between the notes.
I listened to his Beethoven concertos over my speakers and with my new M2. Subtle nuances in dynamic were much more apparent than with my old amp. The natural reverb of the piano in it's full length, Gould waiting until the last hint of sound died off before continuing ... to get that exact timing of what he is doing is crucial to appreciate his playing. Otherwise it just sounds off and strange and doesn't come together. Suddenly it all made perfect sense and it became obvious what a genius he was.

This is such an important point. And yes Gould was a master at this. The silence/space between is as important as the notes themselves. 

 

[calaf]

  This is such an important point. And yes Gould was a master at this. The silence/space between is as important as the notes themselves. 

 
that's why composers use rest markings (or suggestions in the case of Gould

)
 

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Well, since you are talking of silence in music, I'll put this famous quote by Osho :
 
"You see my five fingers, but somebody can see the five gaps between my fingers.
Ordinarily you will not see the gaps, you will see five fingers. But the gaps are more real: fingers may come and go, gaps will remain.
Between sounds of music there are gaps of silence. The authentic music consists not of sounds, but of the gaps. Sounds come and go; those gaps remain. And music can make you aware of those gaps more beautifully than anything else; hence I have to say that music comes next to silence".

 

[Quinto]

  I'm not as enamoured of Bach's piano pieces (except perhaps the Italian concerto) whether by Gould or anyone else.
However, I flat out enjoy Gould's Mozart sonatas (Sony label). I find his interpretations simply beautiful, but also interesting and therefore very engaging. I really like Uchida's Mozart sonatas, but I have found myself investing more time on Gould.
 
One issue however with the Gould/Sony recordings, is that the placement of the mic seems to be too close to one section of the piano on some tracks, particularly at the start of Sonata no.18 or sonata no. 16. As a result the volume and the track comes out unbalanced imo. But this is few and far between.

I agree, I think Gould's Mozart is very playful, beautiful and clear evidence of his genius musical mind..
 
I also like Brendel, Uchida, Eschenbach.. but nobody comes close to Gould's Mozart..
 
But then again, anything played in a unfamiliar way will find fierce resistance among the conventional crowd,it's always like that.

 

[RRod]

 
I agree, I think Gould's Mozart is very playful, beautiful and clear evidence of his genius musical mind..
 
I also like Brendel, Uchida, Eschenbach.. but nobody comes close to Gould's Mozart..
 
But then again, anything played in a unfamiliar way will find fierce resistance among the conventional crowd,it's always like that.

 
No one comes close to Gould's Mozart because the others play Mozart and not Gould :3

 

[Claritas]

Gould played the early sonatas (K. 279-284) very well--sprightly. After that, not so much. His very balanced, earlier K. 330 indicates that something changed in his attitude by the time re-recorded it. But if you think he couldn't play Mozart, listen to his 24th piano concerto.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

From what I understood Gould didn't hate in particular Mozart , but disliked the whole Classical Period. He chose to bash Mozart, because this composer was one of the most influential of that period. It's funny that his favorite composer is Orlando Gibbons, a quite obscure artist today, that is from the early  baroque era.


Quote:

   
No one comes close to Gould's Mozart because the others play Mozart and not Gould :3

 
Perhaps this is perfect for those that don't enjoy that much Mozart ?
 
While listening some of the Mozart sonatas, I also got the feeling that Gould is sometimes  humming in musical part, that exasperates him.  Like a maniac , that feels the need to express his distaste in a way or other. This is comic.

 

[Claritas]

From what I understood Gould didn't hate in particular Mozart, but disliked the whole Classical Period. He chose to bash Mozart, because this composer was one of the most influential of that period. It's funny that his favorite composer is Orlando Gibbons, a quite obscure artist today, that is from the early baroque era.

He was ambivalent about the classical period because of the move away from counterpoint, but he truly disliked Mozart in particular. Gould was left-handed and Mozart wrote his concerti mostly for the right hand so he could conduct with his left hand whilst playing, so they bored Gould. But there are other reasons: temperamentally, Mozart was a hedonist and Gould was an ascetic. I suspect that Gould was jealous of Mozart because Gould, himself, wanted to be a composer but found it too difficult.

Gibbons, though he was no Mozart, was actually a good composer. I'm quite fond of Jeremy Summerly's disc of his anthems with the Oxford Camerata on Naxos. It's a pity that Gould recorded only one disc of Tudor music--mostly Byrd, who's a very good composer; it's a beautiful disc though.

 

[RRod]

Gould played the early sonatas (K. 279-284) very well--sprightly. After that, not so much. His very balanced, earlier K. 330 indicates that something changed in his attitude by the time re-recorded it. But if you think he couldn't play Mozart, listen to his 24th piano concerto.

 
It's all about what he judged "worthy" it seems, either in terms of music content or how much the piece confounded him. I remember a (later) interview where he said that the concertos were beyond help, but that the sonatas had some worth. Probably the same interview where he said Mozart died too late rather than too early 

 
I seem to recall a statement to the effect of "Mozart's skills in improvisation left his writing for piano bare of content." It's interesting then that Gould didn't take this to heart, and instead of doing quirky tempo re-writes and grotesque articulations, actually try to improvise; perhaps it wasn't a skill he had. Curiously enough today we have guys like Levin that make, at least for me, compelling arguments that Mozart's piano writing should be accompanied by some amount of compositional creativity by the performer, exactly because of the sometimes skeletal framework.

 

[LugBug1]

Two great posts Claritas and RRod. 
 
Mozart's piano music is one of the hardest to conquer for any pianist. It sounds so simple and flowing in the right hands (no pun intended for lefties. I'm a lefty!! All the great geniuses are, L D Vinci, Einstein, Napoleon, Pele, Celine Dion *cough* well most anyways... ) but can very easily sound contrived and boring.  Easy to get caught up in the flow and bypass the little irony's, sardonic twists and subtle poppets of playfulness - the humour!. There's not many Mozart piano recordings I like to be fair, including Gould's. But with so many trying to play Mozart right why would I bother with Gould's in the first place? He was a musician's musician. A technical master and deserves his standing in modern history for his Bach recordings alone. But I can kind of understand how he found Mozart boring to play.... A personality clash.