Customer Reviews

Glenn Gould - The Composer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gould was a great pianist, but his compositions, while good, don't match that greatness. Some of the pieces--in particular the string quartet and the piano-bassoon duet--are excellent and in my opnion worth the price of the CD. Others (``So You Want to Write a Fugue?,'' ``Lieberson Madrigal'') are cute but forgettable.

After many years of listening to Glenn Gould's piano playing, it was a pleasant surprise to run across his compositions in recorded form. There have not been many performers who have tried their hand at composing. I found the "So You Want to write a Fugue" worth the price of the CD alone - especially for music educators who would like to have something audibly "different" to illustrate this music form to their students. I also enjoyed his string quartet and the piano-bassoon duet as well as others.

I stumbled on this cd quite by accident. It's a wonderful look at another side of Gould. I hadn't realized he was also a composer, so I bought it as a fellow composer.

I love the "So You Want To Write A Fugue" tune, especially(very tongue-in-cheek and funny, but well-crafted); although the other pieces are reminiscent of many 20th century composers, and have interesting twists and turns in the music. I particularly like his bassoon composition too-he does interesting interplay between the instruments.

I highly recommend this cd!

Most of us know Glenn Gould from his always-original interpretations of famous musical works and his wonderful recordings of Liszt's transcriptions of symphonies. But here we have six excellent compositions by Gould himself, most written before the age of 23.

Probably the most musically remarkable work is the String Quartet Op.1, a richly polytonal-atonal construction of some complexity, written at the age of 23. The only work actually published during his lifetime, it deserves much more attention and performance than it has gotten.

Two intelligently humorous vocal works, the "Lieberson Madrigal" and "So You Want to Write a Fugue?" are excellently presented. A very good bassoon sonata, two very smart pieces for piano and an excellent, unfinished piano sonata round out this collection.

He loved modernism much more than is generally recognized, performing and recording Schoenberg, Berg and Webern long before they became culturally recognized in Canada and America. His fascination with tonal exploration shows up well in his handful of well-made and intelligent compositions.

philip krumm

san antonio