Customer Reviews

Glenn Gould - Extasis

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This apparently made-for-Canadian television spectacle resembles nothing so much as an experimental student film, with its love of elementary thematic tricks such as animation and fade-outs. The juxtaposition of several Gouldian images as well as commentary from acquaintances at once was particularly irritating. Perhaps the creators were trying to mimic Gould's "contrapuntal radio" schematics, in which several voices were broadcast simultaneously, but each time a shot appeared of Gould spouting off about something, it would be replaced by another image, and the sound of the former would be cut off. This disappearing talking head was vexing, because I wanted to hear the rest of Gould's speech about whatever had fascinated him at that moment. Of course, I knew I wouldn't be able to hear everything, but this tease happened so often, at the conclusion of the disc, I snapped off the machine feeling peevish. The occasional factual error was also distracting--Gould was 31, not 32, when he retired from the stage; he had not yet celebrated his birthday for the year in which he performed his last concert. While this may be a silly point, one would like factual inaccuracies to be airbrushed out of a production such as this, believing that some resourceful fact-checker would have taken the time to look up dates and places to ensure that the announcer doesn't make an unnecessary error. The animation, to which I alluded earlier, is sophomoric and pointless. Why must we have dancing dots gamboling in the corner of the frame while he plays? (Yes, I know some of Gould's own productions for Canadian TV featured these inanities, but haven't we progressed since then?) The entire DVD is constructed on the premise that we want to listen to a bunch of people talk about what a genius Gould was (we know already). I cannot highly recommend this disc, but I refuse to seriously caution anyone against its purchase. Even after viewing it, with all the reservations listed here (and then some), I admit that I would buy it again. Sadly, I'm that big a Gould fan. A much better buy? The Russian Journey (more talking head commentary about how marvelous he was, but much more interesting).

I guess this film originally comes from a French program featuring an introduction to Glenn Gould. Each track begins with a very short excerpt of Gould's playing, then followed by tons of different people's comments. However the program is unbalanced - around 90% of the time it is about talking, and as a result you cannot enjoy Gould's playing here (well, except the bonus part). Worse, each individual only gives a short talk for around 10~20 seconds, so you are not going to hear a seriously deep comments either.

I do not recommend this film to people who already know quite much about Gould, nor to those who buy dvd for watching Gould's playing.

They should re-title this film "88,000 Opinions About Glenn Gould From People I Could Care Less About". This documentary was a 10 on the annoying scale. It is an endless parade of opinions from the "experts" regarding Glenn Gould. We never really get to hear GG play for more than a few seconds or hear him say something more than a few sentences. Although there are some respected commentators, sometimes they come off as barnacles who want to stand in front of this wonderful artist and give their opinions in order to touch greatness. Most of the film is dubbed in English but you can still hear the French in the background which combined with the constant interrupting of GG was too much to bare!

So we have lots of fair comments on this DVD here-- we have the least possible insights here.

The only interesting things here are the short clips of Glenn Gould playing things like Beethoven's symphonies on the keyboard. But these are scarce and would last only a minute or so each... Moreover, at least for the English audience, they have to bear with echoing sound of simultaneous interpretation all along which could be rather unpleasant.

For those who are interested in the life of this great pianist, they could instead go for "Glenn Gould, His Life and Times"; for those who would prefer to see and hear him on the keyboard, go for his "Goldberg Variations". And for those who prefer to hear him talk and explain, they could pick " The Alchemist"... And for those who have a particular capacity for gossips or the like, go for this one as well.

"Extasis (ecstacy) is a fine thread linking together music, performance, performer, and audience into the fabric of shared awareness and innerness." ~ Glenn Gould (September 25, 1932 - October 4, 1982) ~

Produced in 1993 by Kultur, Radio Canada and CBC, "Extasis" is a 75-minute-documentary film of an extraordinary classical pianist, Glenn Gould, who was a brilliant concert performer and recording artist who made an overnight sensation in the world of classical music in 1955 for his notably impressive debut recording, Bach's "The Goldberg Variations." The film gives us a sketch of Gould as the man and Gould as the musician. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest classical pianists the music world has ever known for his piano artistry is exceptionally impressive. As a special bonus performance footage, Gould is shown playing in its entirety Sweelinck's "Fantasy for Organ" with full of virtuosity, dramatic flair and innate expressiveness.

In nineteen days, it will be Glenn Gould's 76th birth anniversary, and in a month will be his 26th death anniversary. He hated live concerts and stopped performing before live audiences in his early thirties and concentrated on recordings. He predicted early on that he would cease his recordings at age fifty. And what a co-incident that his second recordings of Bach's "The Goldberg Variations" were released on his 50th birthday and a few days after, he suffered a stroke that took his life away. And the world had lost one of the most remarkable musical geniuses of all-time. It's also noteworthy that his first (1955) and last (1981) recordings were the "The Goldberg Variations," which Gould himself described as the "meditation of life, music without any beginning or end, no resolution."

There are partial film clips shown on his performances of Bach's "The Goldberg Variations," Mozart's "Sonata K.333," Ravel's "La Valse," Hindemith's "Piano Sonata No. 3," Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15," and "Bagatelle No. 3," Bach's "Piano Concerto No. 1," "Piano Concerto No. 7" and "Fugue No. 22 in B Flat minor" and Schoenberg's "Fantasy for Violin and Piano," to mention a few.

I have transcribed the following quotes from the interviewees who shared their sentiments about Glenn Gould namely: Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Lady Diana Menuhin, his manager Walter Homburger, musicologists Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Chrislaine Guertin and Georges Guillard, music critics Eric McLean, Carol Bergeron and Jacques Drillon, Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary John P.L. Roberts, pianists William Aide and Anton Kuerti, journalist Daniel Poulin, violinist Otto Joacquim and his personal secretary Ray Roberts, among many others. One interesting quote was from Leonard Bernstein who had the opportunity to conduct Gould on Brahm's "First Piano Concerto in D minor" and bravely raised this question: "In a concierto, who is the boss, the soloist or the conductor?" It has been publicized that Bernstein did not approve of Gould's conception and interpretation of this piece.

"A performer like no other. The best pianist of the 20th Century."
"A man of genius."
"I admire his mind, everything he can do."
"He loved music. It was his life."
"For many, he was one of two or three greatest pianists of all-time."
"He was the first pianist who ever gave a televised concert in Canada."
"He believed in telepathy, co-incidences and was into numerology."
"He was an only child. His father, Russell Herbert was an amateur violinist and his mother, Florence played the piano and organ."
"His first piano teacher was his mother from age three through ten and then studied for ten years under the tutelage of Alberto Guerrero, who himself was also a child prodigy in piano, and described Gould as unteachable."
"He practiced and played piano non-stop and his parents had to restrict him to playing no more than four hours a day. They had to offer him rewards to make him stop playing."
"He wanted to be a composer, but he was not a composer. He was a re-composer, he re-created things. He had fantastic brainwaves."
"He took night for day and sat on the piano when everyone else went to bed."
"He refused to be like the others. He always wanted to be the contrary of tradition."
"He took his own blood pressure. He made himself taken incredible amounts of medication."
"He refused to shake hands."
"Others described him as a misanthropist."
"On his very last performance, he was blinded by the dazzle, spotlights and gazing eyes."
"He was one of the exceptional beings who brought to our century and to our era something new and unheard of, people feel this and are permanently indebted to him."
"He had a terrific memory."
"He was a perfect friend, not only a musician friend, but also a personal friend as well. He was always available."
"Brilliant but controversial and eccentric."
"He phoned his friends at 4:00 in the morning and played nine bars of a piece they had to identify."
"He sometimes plays bending down, hugging the piano as if he wanted to bury himself on the piano."
"He was an extraordinary talent. His Bach is fantastic. His Schoenberg is a revelation. His Mozart...I myself hated it."
"His recordings of "Goldberg Variations" were extraordinary refreshing. It achieved a level of humanity that is absolutely remarkable."
"His life is a masterpiece. He constantly wants to prepare masterpieces and that's what he did."

It doesn't matter how one describes Glenn Gould, to me, his eccentricity does not matter at all, it is his sublime piano artistry that I admire most in him. He was most of all a piano master, a multifaceted genius, a unique performer and a brilliant recording artist. I'd like to remember him as such and not as an eccentric person.

For interesting reads about Glenn Gould, please check these out:A Well-Mannered Storm: The Glenn Gould Poems, A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano and Glenn Gould: Music & Mind (Goodread Biographies), where the passages on this documentary were excerpted.

"One does not play the piano with one's fingers, one plays the piano with one's mind." ~ Glenn Gould ~

Ceaseless talking heads spend 60 unnecessary minutes attempting to sell you the Idea of Gould.