Glenn Gould - "Glenn Gould Plays His Own Transcriptions of Wagner Orchestral Showpieces" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1973 (Columbia Masterworks)

Glenn Gould playing Richard Wagner is a strange and even an exotic cocktail.   Wagner is very much the heavy metal of the 19th-century composers, and one who doesn't shy from over-kill or over-reaching the borders of opera, stage, and ego.   Gould is a musician who I often think of as a magician who can find the most profound nuances in a composer's work.   Gould took the huge orchestration of Wagner's music and re-arranged the works for solo piano.  Here, Gould is like a surgeon dissecting a piece of music in a laboratory of his own design. 

I love Wagner for his melodies and extreme romanticism, but hate everything else that goes with his image/work - racism being one thing that bugs me.  Uri Caine is the other musician that stripped away Wagner from his culture, and fine-tuned his melodies as a cafe band.   But Gould was there first with his down-to-earth ability to strip Wagner as well, of all of his jewels and ambition, and makes a point that the composer was a great melodist. 

When I hear Gould's Wagner album, I'm not really hearing the composer, but the chef that's making the ultimate dish from the genius pianist.  Like Thelonious Monk who plays around the melody, or sketches as if he's using a fine ink brush, Gould works in a similar method in tracing out the Wagner melodies into a new work. 

Gould's version of Wagner is not to replace the epic orchestrations, but just add a footnote or an endnote to work that is often not torn apart in such a fashion, like Gould and Caine's playful approach to Wagner.   One of my favorite classical albums, that for me, is a totally new entrance into Wagner's music. 

Glenn Gould - "Plays His Own Transcriptions of Wagner Orchestral Showpieces" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1973 (Columbia Masterworks)

I don't know what is more fascinating, Glenn Gould making an arrangement of Wagner's music for the piano, or that he mentions Ferrante and Teicher in the interview that comes with the album.  Still, Wagner has always been a favorite of mine, but to a point.  My problem is that I feel that Wagner's music gets lost in the orchestration, and through his iconic ego.   The beautiful melodies that he wrote are superb, yet they get lost in the Wagner world or mix. 

Glenn Gould transcribed the orchestration to piano music, and doing so, brings Wagner back to planet Earth, where us other humans live as well.   Wagner is very much a genius from the 19th century, and Gould is a brilliant contemporary artist.  The two (well, Wagner's music) meet in a recording studio in 1973, and it's hearing these beautiful melodies in a fresh and new way.  I suspect the actual Viking Wagner lunatic will probably hate this album, but for me, it's a masterpiece. 

Gould keeps the romantic feelings intact, but it's on a smaller scale.  Reading his interview that comes with this vinyl disc, it's interesting that he points out that Liszt, a masterful pianist, did transcriptions of Beethoven's orchestrational music.  Besides the aesthetic flavor of doing something, it is also a proper technique in presenting a composer's music to places that couldn't afford a full orchestra.  Gould's purpose is to re-think Wagner, and I think he also wanted to dominate the music, instead of the music dominating him.  

As far as I know, Gould played and recorded Liszt's transcripts of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but the Wagner piece is the only one that he actually wrote an arrangement for piano.  There are three pieces by Wagner on the album:  "Meistersinger Prelude," Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey from "Götterdämmerung," and on side two "Siegfried Idyll." The Gould pace is slow on "Siegfried Idyll."  It's a thoughtful approach to this music, with pauses, almost if someone is meditating on what is being played, as he works through the piece.  A beautiful method with respect to performing Wagner. 

Glenn Gould -Three Beethoven Sonatas: "Moonlight Sonata"/"Appassionata Sonata"/Pathétique Sonata" LP, Vinyl, Album, 1967 (Columbia Masterworks)

Glenn Gould has the knack (and skill) to perform music by great composers, yet still, question their composition while playing the piece.   The iconic "Moonlight Sonata" sounds less iconic in his hands, as he takes us what seems to be a different listening experience for the audience.  Usually a very romantic piece of music, but on this recording, Gould makes it into the blues. I always get the impression that Gould's purpose is not to give the ultimate version of a piece but to investigate, question, and poke the work, and see how and why it operates in such a fashion. 

Gould is like someone with architectural knowledge, and he takes a building by Frank Lloyd Wright part-by-part and studies all the individual pieces that made the building.  And therefore get a view how the architect thinks.  This is what he does with Beethoven and Bach.  I get the impression that he's not trying to interpret the work, more like getting into the composer's head, regarding a particular work. 

Thelonious Monk comes to mind when I hear Gould.  It's not the melody of the piece, but how they trace the theme through their skills as a pianist.   Gould is an excellent musician.  A skilled artist. But the reason why we talk or write about him is due to his intellect when connected to his playing.  The same goes for Monk.   "Appassionata Sonata" is a dynamic and romantic piece of music, but in Gould's hands he brings out the poetry of the melody and brings the pomposity of the work down a notch so we can focus on the construction of the work and its natural sense of beauty.  Always an enjoyable experience. 

Richard Strauss/Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, George Szell, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra - "Four Last Songs" LP, Vinyl (Angel Records)

Not a bad find for $1.99 at Amoeba Music in Hollywood.  At this point in my life, I know very little about classical music.  My main gateway to that world is Glenn Gould.  Which I suspect is a perverse entrance to 'long-hair' music.  This year, and due to classical music selections in various used record stores, I'm finding a lot of great sounds.   Richard Strauss "Four Last Songs" was totally unknown to me, except for David Bowie's love for this music.   If Bowie loved it, then I'm going to listen to it.  I don't have the actual recording that he had, but the Elisabeth Schwarzkopf / George Szell version is a wow. 

Strauss wrote the "Four Last Songs" as a parting gift or a reflexion on approaching death.  Goth classical?  No, not exactly.  Three of the songs have text by Hermann Hesse.  They're simple, but with stark imagery of time passing, and the moment when peace arrives.  It's not a downer but emotionally charged, with a profound sense of soul.  Which comes to Schwarzkopf's voice which is amazing.  A stunning looking woman, with a beautiful voice, what can go wrong?  Well, she does have a murky relationship with Hitler and company, that is similar to the relationship between Leni Riefenstahl and the Nazis. Nevertheless, a fascinating biography that needs to be read by me (and you).  Still, her singing is a perfect element in the cocktail of Strauss's music with the addition of Szell's orchestration.  

The flip side is five additional songs that are just as great as "The Last Four Songs."  Strauss was one of Glenn Gould's favorite composers, and now hearing this album, I need to explore this composer's music.  And oddly enough, Gould recorded some of Strauss's songs with Schwarzkopf, that apparently didn't go well.   It makes my head explode thinking of those two in the same room.   Sony put out a CD of those recordings, but I haven't had the chance to locate the CD, but it is on YouTube. Also, I suspect that I'm going to purchase more versions of Strauss's "Four Last Songs" in the very near future.   Any recommendations?

Glenn Gould - Bach/ "The Art of the Fugue, Volume 1 (First Half)" Vinyl, LP, Remastered 2015 (Vinyl Passion Classical)

Originally recorded in 1962, this album by Glenn Gould performing and recording Bach's "The Art of the Fugue" on the organ is a sound that pretty much have been in my life for the past 50 or so years.  My parents used to play this album at a very high volume.  As far as I know this is the only recording with Gould playing the organ.    These compositional pieces of music were Bach's exploration in monothematic instrumental works.  Never written for any particular instrument, it is many ways Bach's thinking out a problem from a notebook.  Gould I suspect was a musician who tackled music as an ongoing concern than a finished work of art.  The process or the journey is very much of great importance to Gould, and it is intelligence as well as his skills on the keyboard that makes him such a fantastic artist. 

The description above sounds cold, but the truth is, I often hum this melody in the bathtub.  The ultimate riff builds on other riffs.   It's like building a sand castle, and there is a wave coming in any second to tear down your structure.  Trying to find the original mono Columbia Masterworks version is tough for me.   I want one because that was the version that we had as a child, and I'm trying to recapture my childhood through the medium of vinyl.  To recapture the past is a foolish activity because the memory is always the winner.  Even over physical objects such as a vinyl from one's past.  A European label, Vinyl Passion Classical, put this out in 2015 on vinyl.   Not sure if it's a high-end bootleg label or an official release.   The sound is great.  And there is something magnificent about this music on vinyl.   Gould has done so many superb recordings, but due to emotional reasons, this is my favorite Glenn Gould album. 

Glenn Gould / Handel - "Suites for Harpsichord Nos. 1-4 (Columbia Masterworks, 1972) Vinyl LP

If I'm not mistaken, this is the only music recording of Glenn Gould playing he harpsichord.  Which oddly enough, sounds like his piano playing, including him singing softly with the music he's playing.  The recording is from 1972, and I found this album unopened with a plastic shrinkwrap around it. In other words, it has been untouched by human hands since '72.  

The composer is George Frideric Handel, who like Gould, was a keyboard virtuoso.  The music was written in 1720, and in the hands (and mind) of Gould, it sounds like a modern piece of music.  Well, I guess how one defines 'modern,' but Gould is not a historian in my opinion.  When we hear the word 'harpsichord' we have a sound in mind.  Gould plays the keyboard in a different manner.  At times very minimal and slow.  Then, he sounds like he has twenty fingers going at once.   I can hear an orchestration that is not in place, but only in my mind.  Truly elegant, and it's music that needs one's full attention.  By no means dinner music in a restaurant or at one's home.  Also, I don't think this recording ever made it onto CD.  Only vinyl. Unless there is a Japanese edition of this performance on CD.    Nevertheless, a great album.