Watch: Glenn Gould’s TV debut
Daily Comfort ZoneFrom Daniel Poulin;
Television came late to Canada. The CBC first telecast originated in Montréal on September 6/1952. Two days later Toronto presented its premiere -a live, 3 hour extravaganza of speeches, news, drama and music, including Gould who performed part of a Beethoven concerto with orchestra. But Glenn Gould’s first Toronto complete concert happened in 1957, on February 20 where he conducted an orchestra in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony (No.2) with Maureen Forrester (contralto) in the fourth movement. Also on the programme were three movements of Bach’s Partita No.5: Allemande, Sarabande and Courante. Even if the quality of the video is rather poor it is still worth preserving for the sheer value of the typical Gould playing. He was 24 years old.
My favorite pianist, ever (•pace,• Seymour Bernstein), even when I very personally disagreed with his approach to a piece.. Thank you for sharing this lovely tidbit.
CBC has (or has had) a 10-dvd box set – Glenn Gould on Television:The Complete CBC Broadcasts 1954-1977. Everything described above is included on Disc One which includes Gould’s own cadenza for the first movement of Beethoven’s first piano concerto. Lars Vogt (with Rattle) has recorded the complete concerto with both of Gould’s cadenzas. This set is utterly splendid.