Richard Classical Wagner Glenn Gould Toronto Symphony Orchestra - Wagner SiegfriedIdyll Gould Transcriptions from Wagners Die Meistersinger Gtterdmmerung (4 tracks) +Album Reviews

Glenn Gould's tender romantic side

The Sanity Inspector | USA | 02/08/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In Otto Friedrich's biography of Glenn Gould, Gould is represented as saying that the _Siegfried Idyll_ has more "longeurs" in it than Wagner's notation of "ruhig bewegt" calls forth. So, in his chamber orchestra version of this lovely work Gould conducts it much slower than it is usually heard. And indeed, a certain inherent limpidness which never quite becomes maudlin comes out. Comparing this with a conventional but fine rendition by Karajan, it may well be that Gould was on to something. The _Siegfried Idyll_ sounds joyful in its normal speed, but Gould's version is full of sighs of love. The _Meistersingers_ and _Gotterdammerung_ are marvels of invention--and of editing. Gould composed new voices for his transcription, as if, he said, the pieces had been written by someone like Scriabin, who knew the piano better than Wagner did. He overtracks himself in spots, when the music calls for more fingers than he had available. The cherry on the sundae, though, is his piano transcription of the _Siegfried Idyll_. Anyone who thinks of Gould as simply the robotically precise Bach-technician and Mozart-butcherer really should hear this. Like the chamber orchestra version, he stretches this out. But, unlike his slowed-down Bach, he isn't trying to reveal some inner voice or structural detail. He is drawing out the actual, living *feeling* of this piece--just as someone like Alfred Cortot playing Chopin would. He feels the beauty of this work, and he gives it to us without a trace of irony. The dynamic range is almost too great--I found myself turning it down during the climaxes and turning it up during the coda. But this is a beautiful, beautiful accomplishment, fit to be a stylistic bookend to his famous 1955 _Goldberg Variations_. If you haven't heard it, correct that deficiency in your musical knowledge ASAP. It may not make you a Gould fan, but you'll never view him in quite the same way again."

Drama and Emotion

Egremont Russett | Rockledge, FL USA | 02/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like Glenn Gould, buy this album. If you like Wagner, buy two.The first, orchestral Siegfried, shows us another side of Glenn Gould: The Interpreter. The album is worth buying for this track alone- he manages to wring joy and agony, wonder and angst, out of a spartan score without ever pouring on the syrup.The Meistersinger track is an altogether stunning transcription, but it's in the two Gesamptkunzwerken pieces that his genius really shines through. Limited to two (and a bit) hands, he somehow manages to give us a more detailed view of each Leitmotif, bringing drama and context to each character. This Rheifahrt should be required listening for all Wagner conductors.Something I didn't notice (the first few hundred times through) was how much he manages to articulate (in the jazz sense)- he plays with the tempi, swings around it, not at all like his mechanical Bach."

Gould at His Best

Egremont Russett | 07/26/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Glenn Gould and Kevin Doyle's production of this recording is nothing short of SPECTACULAR.The quality of the performance and recording will define classical music to come"

Gould the Composer (and Conductor)...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 08/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gould the Composer (and Conductor)...

.

Glenn Gould wasn't merely a pianist: he was a polymathic artist: musician, composer, writer, broadcaster, and record producer.

Here we have Gould's own piano reductions of Wagner's operatic scores (Meistersinger; Götterdämmerung; and Siegfried).

Recorded in 1973, Gould's biographer Dr. K. Bazzana says, `His piano recording of the Siegfried Idyll--intimate, lyrical, tonally resplendent, immaculately paced--may be his greatest performance.'

Gould `sought to underscore the "languor" he thought implicit in the music': his transcription and performance is a `wondrous, dreamy meditation of piano playing.'

In the fractious Meistersinger and Götterdämmerung excerpts, Gould overdubbed himself to attain full four-handed realizations.

.

Considering Gould's orchestral Siegfried Idyll, there is no historical doubt that Gould fully intended to transition into conducting after his fiftieth year.

His piano technique had not abated, but he felt ready for new vistas and was looking forward to realizing music not for the piano but with an orchestral instrument.

`He was certain that, whether or not his pianistic career was winding down, he would make recordings as a conductor. The prospect opened up a whole new repertoire to him as a creative interpreter [wherein] he would have offered orchestral performances no less personal and refreshing than his piano recordings. He made lists of some of the orchestral works he was considering conducting for future recordings, and they reveal his extraordinary enthusiasm as the prospect of this new career, and his astonishing ambition.'

(The lists included, Bach's Orchestral Suites and Brandenburg Concerti; Haydn's middle- and late-period Symphonies; the Symphonies of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms; Strauss' Metamorphosen, late Concerti, and Four Last Songs; Schönberg's Chamber Symphonies, Gurrelieder, Verklärte Nacht, and Pelleas; Webern's Passacaglia and Symphony, etc.)

At the time of his death (4 Oct. 82) Gould was already scheduled to conduct Mendelssohn's Hebrides and Beethoven's Coriolan overtures with an orchestra of 38 musicians.

From July 1982 we have this luscious, erotic, languorously sweet performance of the original chamber version (13 players) of the Siegfried Idyll with Gould at the helm: at the session's end he cried out, `Gorgeous! Magnificent! Heartbreaking!'

The miking is very tight; the textures transparent; and `the recording was just what Gould had wanted.' (Posthumously released in 1990.)

Glenn Gould plays his own Transcriptions of Wagner Orchestral Showpieces

Der Ring des Nibelungen / Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Sigfrid Karg-Elert: Harmonium Works, Vol. 2

."

Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Glenn Gould, Toronto Symphony Orchestra :: Wagner: Siegfried-Idyll; Gould: Transcriptions from Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger' & 'Götterdämmerung'

CD Details

CD Reviews