[CAUT] Glenn Gould/Bach stuff

[william ballard]

On Feb 24, 2006, at 2:45 PM, Andy Rudoff wrote:
> But the Two and Three Part Inventions is one of the most controversial
> and die hard fans like me know the story.  His piano, a Steinway known
> as "CD 318" had been dropped, ruined.  His piano technician told him
> it was totaled.  Glenn himself fiddled with it and probably didn't
> help the situation.  But he insisted on recording the Inventions using
> that piano.  When Columbia released the recording, they included a
> sort of apologetic note about the piano noises.
>
> Thankfully Gould was eventually convinced to give up on that piano.
> For example, his second (digital) of the Goldberg Variations was
> on a Yamaha CFIII.

Franz Mohr was the Steinway technician taking care of Gould (as he  
was for many of the other great Steinway pianists). The story as I  
remember him telling it (and he waited a long time before sharing  
it), was that Gould's Steinway-on-loan got sent back  to the factory  
for a routine rebuilding. Maybe it got dropped, maybe it was just  
due, "whether it needed it or not". What came back  as their standard  
piece of work, bearing as much resemblance to the piano which left  
his place as did the "Horowitz piano" before and after it took the  
same trip. (Except that Horowitz was not alive to be presented with  
the totally re-whatevered piano.)

Franz was dispatched to Toronto (or where Glenn lived) to deal with  
Glenn's complaints. Glenn probably was in too much shock to be able  
to explain what he needed from the piano (and he may not have been a  
particularly verbal person anyway). But Glenn had a Chickering grand  
at the house, which Franz described as being in miserable regulation:  
the afore-mentioned shallow dip, let-off drop and rep spring varying  
wildly from one note to the next. There wasn't much Franz could do to  
turn the newly rebuilt Steinway into Glenn's ratty Chickering, and  
there the situation stayed until Yamaha stepped in.

As I said, Franz waited a decent interval (ten years or so after  
Glenn's death) before telling his side of this story, .

On Feb 24, 2006, at 3:57 PM, Porritt, David wrote:
> I had heard that he liked a very shallow dip making real regulation  
> pretty impossible.

Shallow dip is where the key hits the front rail punching before the  
jack fly hits the let-off button. Ye, that would make a note stutter....

This from http://www.glenngould.com/gg/trnscrp2.html
> Question: Toronto Admirer asks: How many pianos can be  
> authenticated as genuine instruments on which Mr. Gould practised  
> or performed or recorded during his lifetime? Where are these  
> treasures now?
>
> Answer: While Glenn used other pianos for a number of recordings  
> while searching for an ideal instrument, the two which he finally  
> settled were Steinway CD318 now at the National Library of Canada  
> and in his latest years, the Yahama piano presently at Roy Thomson  
> Hall in Toronto. His childhood Chickering piano (which is the one  
> against which he appears to have judged all others) is presently at  
> the Glenn Gould Studio at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto.  
> Steinway CD401 was a piano that he used earlier in his career. Last  
> seen in Hamilton at McMaster University. There is also his Steinway  
> practice piano which was in his apartment at the time of his death  
> and is presently at the residence of the Governor General in  
> Ottawa. (Steve, Ray, Tim)
Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

wbps@vermontel.net

"Lady, this piano is what it is, I am what I am, and you are what you  
are"
     ...........From a recurring nightmare.
+++++++++++++++++++++