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Remembering

Thursday, 4th October 2007

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of Glenn Gould. I recommend this blogpost by one of the jazz world's finest pianists, Jessica Williams [Via Rifftides]. And there's a commemorative item (and brief video clip) in his home town newspaper, The Toronto Star. Among other things, the paper's music critic reflects on the roots of Gould's popularity:

Popular culture in 2007 is much different from that of 60 years ago, when Gould made his Massey Hall debut with the Toronto Symphony. One of the keys... lies in North American middle-class musical culture of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, according to Gould biographer Kevin Bazzana. "Nearly half of middle-class adults had a relationship with classical music at that time," says Bazzana...
I remember once visiting grandparents as a little boy, probably in the early '70s. Their open door created an endless riot of family and friends indoors. Yet, that afternoon, everything came to a halt because Gould was going to be on TV. Adults and kids were silenced as the black-and-white TV set flickered to life. For the next half hour, we were transfixed by the image of a strange man humming, gesticulating, practically crouched at his keyboard, weaving magical piano music.

Here's Gould in person, playing the Courante from Bach's Partita No 4. I hadn't seen this before. Magical. You can watch the beginning of the whole work here, and then click forward for more.