Unheard early Gould: He plays Beethoven without humming
mainOur friend Daniel Poulin has unearthed a radio broadcast from October 1952, soon after Glenn turned 20.
It’s a completely straight and unfussy account of Beethoven’s opus 49/1, apparently the only time he ever played that sonata.
You hear it here first.
I do not pretend to be able to judge the quality of piano playing.
But I will say this: I much rather listen to Gould humming than hear him speak.
If only Gould had not grown contemptuous of the Great man.
First: many thanks to Brian Andrew Leahy for editing this Sonata from the complete radio broadcast of Octobet 5/1952, just a few days after Glenn’s 20th b/day. Second: an anecdote re: Beethoven’s op.49. Another great pianist of the 20th century Walter Gieseking, a true phenomenon -he learned to play the piano all by himself at the age of 3 before reading and writing and performed all 32 Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas when only 20 years old (six recitals). He played the whole set by memory, except for the two so-called easy sonatas of op.49. As a trait of subtle humor, he used the score only for those two, playing the other 30 by heart.
Hardly a difficult sonata. Playing sounds mechanical and obvious to me.
As usual.
Of course you have a right to your own opinion, “microview”, but what *I* hear is lovely, poised playing with true grace on the little turns and flourishes. I’d be delighted to hear a performance like this in the recital hall.
And in your opinion it is not a “difficult” sonata. Compared to the Hammerklavier, perhaps it isn’t. But can YOU play it this well?
Love the way GG wipes the snot on his upper sleeve! Presumably an early example of HIP.
Good! He should have stuck with Beethoven. That’s decent at least. It’s not like in Mozart, every time he can’t quite follow the beauty of it that the angels stuck in a nuance indication saying: “maliziosamente fuori con l’ombrello per favore”
I like the Op. 49 works, but they are really sonatinas that brother Carl sold a publisher without Beethoven’s permission. Good Gieseking story, Daniel.
True, but better they become known during his lifetime rather than, like Fuer Elise, have to wait 40 years to emerge. Aside from the Adagios of the _Moonlight_ and _Pathetique_, these were the first Beethoven Sonatas I learned as a child (and following Clementi’s Op. 36 set). I never greatly enjoyed the Sonatine in G, Op. 79, but I dearly love the one in F#, Op. 78– another pair of sonatinas released together.
Just so, Alberic. I was thinking of the Sonatine in G, and I also love Op. 78. Some of these could be seen as early experiments with two-movement form. Sonata No. 9 in E is sometimes asssigned younger students.
This is one of the glorious recordings that so infuriated critics.
Just for you Edgar, hope you enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq8o92aPEEM
,Mille merci, Daniel.
Thanks for the link !! And PLEASE do not forget Leontyne Price’s birthay, another GREAT artist this continent had !!
It was included on the “Original CBC Broadcasts” CDC issued by CBC Records in 1997, PSCD 2013.
Typo: CD, not ‘CDC’
It was included on the “Original CBC Broadcasts” CD issued by CBC Records in 1997, PSCD 2013.
Awful!I zapped after 15( seconds!