Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits Glenn Gould's Highlights from the Glenn Gould Collection [VHS]

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This video is a very diverse collection of Glenn Gould recordings. In addition to Glenn playing the piano solo, it features his portrayals of his characters Sir Nigel, Myron Chianti, and Karl-Heinz Klopweisser, an odd piece called Scotch Rhapsody were we get to hear Glenn sing (not just his usual humming!), some unfortunately low quality 1957 footage of him conducting a Mahler piece, Bach's BWV 1017, with Yehudi Menuhin on violin; and the classic "So You Want to Write a Fugue". Altogether, there are 13 selections, each different and unique. The only shortcoming to this video is that it is quite short... 46:16. Considering it's price, this was disappointing to me. As a sampler album, it could ... and should ... have been longer.

This video was excellent! incredible! amazing! brilliant! especially the part where ole' Glenn sings some ol' Scot rhapsody dressed as a ladykiller. It's also got "So You Want To Write A Fugue" as it appeared originally on the CBC television broadcast from 1958, which is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. "So you want to write a fugue/You got the nerve to write a fugue/You got the urge to write a fugue". Also represented is Gould's interpretations of a number of composers, such as Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin (check out his playing on this), as well as him conducting a Mahler piece. One of the most enlightening things was Gould's deconstruction of a Strauss opera using the themes from Electra to detail his somewhat bizarre and obtuse extrapolations. In a word - COOL. Okay that's one word.