Personal Comments On Glenn Gould

One person I admire is the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. He was absolutely an outstanding musician. His flawless technique and personal interpretations of music are two reasons why I love his playing. Although I am a huge fan of his Bach, he detested playing in the public and prefered studio recordings, which was very unconventional considering his fame and success in his career. He also had a considerable amount of eccentric behaviours and a stubborn personality. For example, he was heavily addicted to relying on medication to solve his mental health issues and had weird conducting gestures when playing. However, his playing style connects to nature in various ways (he actually paints pictures through his playing) and is something perhaps even Bach himself did not intend. He hummed while playing and this caused headaches for the sound engineers.  (You can check out his 1955 & 1988 recording of the Goldberg Variations. It’s just marvellous.) His life did not inspire me much due to his eccentricities but the fact that he had made a tremendous impact on how people view Bach’s music inspires me to do something similar. (You know you are a true genius when it takes another genius centuries later to actually understand your music the way you intended it) But as Michelangelo says, an artist without eccentricities probably has no real talent! (however with Bach being one major exception)