Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Glenn Gould :: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas

Favorite Performances

Boris der Chemiker | Raleigh, North Carolina United States | 05/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was the first classical music recording I remember hearing. I was four years old at the time and I was hooked. 37 years later it is still a favorite. It is true that Gould's performances of these works are unorthodox to say the least, but give the man some credit; his performances work. I am glad that Sony has re-issued this album with its original cover."

Icy Passion in a Sweetly Morbid Liquor...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 06/17/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

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In order to appreciate this distinctive reading of the great f-minor Sonata Op. 57 (Beethoven had used the term "Appassionato"), it is required of the auditor that s/he must suspend his own anticipation of auditory events with this familiar piece in order to give the sound time to expand in space as the duration expands in the mind.

If one sustains the time and closely listens to Gould's diffusive vivification of Beethoven's orthographic text, an entirely new aesthetic experience is available for apprehension: un frisson nouveau--(as Victor Hugo said of Baudelaire).



It's no ordinary thing to take a slow tempo and precisely maintain it for a large span of time.

Furthermore, in tandem with his expansion of the timescale, Gould conjures new rhythms, accents, inflections, and subtle but distinctive changes in articulation and syntax.

Too, Gould effects the vocalization of the piano itself by giving the sound time to resonate and escape from the instrument.

Gould's brilliant keyboard technique is present as always, referring specifically to the actual tactile phenomenon of Gould's fingers manipulating the piano's keys.



When one learns to love Gould's sublimely meditative, synapse and imagination stimulating art, the time passes all too quickly...



Compare Kempff's 1964 reading:



Allegro assai [09:55]

Andante con moto [06:02]

Allegro ma non troppo--Presto [08:48],



with Gould's 1967 reading:



Allegro assai [15:01]

Andante con moto [11:06]

Allegro ma non troppo--Presto [05:26].



This is a Way "less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

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Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 - Nos, 1-3, 5-10, 12-14

The Glenn Gould Edition: Ludwig Van Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Volume II

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 24 "À Thérèse" & 29 "Hammerklavier"

Beethovn: Piano Sonata No. 30; Sonata No. 31; Sonata No. 32

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Op. 10

Glenn Gould Edition: Beethoven/Liszt

Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould

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In addition, while there are many note-perfect readings of the 'Pathétique', Gould's clear unctuous realization of the noble Adagio cantabile is an apex of beauty not to be missed [04:41].

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