On the program:
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 (translation) - Vocalconsort Berlin, Marcus Creed, conductor
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Glenn Gould, piano
TRANSCRIPT:
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Brian McCreath Some performers have such a strong personal imprint that you can immediately tell when you hear them, even with your eyes closed…
But it’s a rare performer who gives you that strong sense of self and the clearest sense of the composer at hand.
For many people, Glenn Gould’s Bach performances pulled off that synthesis, and you’ll hear the masterpiece that brought Gould to the public eye, coming up on The Bach Hour.
Welcome to The Bach Hour, from 99-5 WCRB, a part of WGBH. I’m Brian McCreath. You can find us online at Classical WCRB dot org, where you can listen to this program again on-demand and find more resources for exploration, including the trailer from the 2010 documentary about Glenn Gould called “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould.” Again, that’s all at Classical WCRB dot org.
Felix Mendelssohn is the one who’s most often credited with sparking the revival of interest in Bach’s works. But several years earlier, Johann Gottfried Schicht, a successor of Bach’s at the St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig, published an edition of Bach’s motets. It provided listeners with the seeds of enthusiasm for rediscovering Bach’s music.
Here is one of those motets, Singet dem Herr ein neues Lied, or “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Marcus Creed conducts Vocalconsort Berlin.
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Brian McCreath In 1789, Mozart travelled from Vienna to Leipzig, and he heard the St. Thomas Choir performed the piece you just heard, J.S. Bach’s motet Singet dem Herr ein neues Lied. Mozart’s reaction? As the choir began singing, he apparently sat up, startled, and said, “What is this?” and was completely entranced. At the end of the piece, he said, “Now there is something one can learn from!”
Marcus Creed conducted Vocalconsort Berlin in that performance of Bach’s Singet dem Herr ein neues Lied – “Sing to the Lord a New Song.’
Very few artists have the kind of impact on culture as did Glenn Gould. His musical voice was utterly unique, and his personality and approach to life fascinated millions.
Both of those aspects are explored in a 2010 film called “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould,” and you can find an excerpt from it at our web site. Visit Classical WCRB dot org, and look for the “About” section on The Bach Hour page.
Early in the film, you get a window into the reasons behind Gould’s distinctive style. Ruth Watson Henderson, who was a fellow student of Gould’s at the Toronto Conservatory, demonstrates one of the teaching techniques of their teacher, Alberto Guerrero. He had his students practice slowly, with one hand’s fingers resting on the keys of the piano, while the other hand was used to play notes by tapping the tops of those fingers on the keyboard. The result was what Henderson described as an independence of each finger, leading to a characteristic detached quality to the playing. She goes on to say that, at first, she thought Glenn Gould was making fun of this technique by exaggerating that clean, detached sound. But then she realized that, with what was just a blazing technical ability, it was simply the true musical voice of Gould himself.
In terms of interpretation, another interview features Cornelia Foss, the wife of the late composer Lukas Foss. She describes a car ride in which both she and her husband were transfixed by a radio broadcast of Gould’s recording of the Goldberg Variations. She wasn’t sure she liked it too much, but she also acknowledges that it was brilliant. She says that it was as though he had taken the piece apart and put it back together, like a clock. It still made sense, but it made a different kind of sense.
And here is that performance. Recorded in June of 1955 in New York, this is Glenn Gould with J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
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Brian McCreath “The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”
Those words, spoken by Glenn Gould, were chosen to accompany a 2002 re-release of Gould’s two recordings of The Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. That was the 1955 recording of the Goldbergs, one of the most successful classical records ever to be produced, as well as, I think it’s fair to say, one of the most influential.
And if you’d like more information about the 2010 documentary about Glenn Gould called “Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould,” visit our web site at Classical WCRB dot org. Just look for The Bach Hour.
And that web site is also where you can listen to this program and all of our past programs on demand. Again, we’re at Classical WCRB dot org.
Thank you for joining me today, and thanks also to audio engineer Antonio Oliart Ros. I’m Brian McCreath, and I’ll hope to have your company again next week here on The Bach Hour.