With all the fuss and hoopla over the past few days out of the way, I want to mark Glenn Gould’s 80th birthday with two composers he did particularly interesting things with, yet are not associated with the pianist as often as Bach.
The first is Orlando Gibbons, caught here in a French documentary from 1974:
The second is Johannes Brahms — in particular the two Op. 79 Rhapsodies. Missing is the elasticized velvet wrapper that Brahms’ music needs. Instead, Gould highlights the composer’s complex musical structures in ways I don’t think any other pianist has been able to do:
John Terauds