Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.87 (686 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0195182464 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 560 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-08-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A Definitive Biography I will admit to having an obsession with the life and art of Glenn Gould. I had the privilege to hear him in concert in the early '60's. I have never forgotten that moment.Over the years I have amassed a collection of GG recordings and listen to them frequently. I also have a comprehensive GG library collection. I bought this book in 2005 and just now got around to reading it. I believe this to be t. A Worthy Biography I can't exactly put a nail on why I have read so many biographies on Gould, but I dare say the story of his reclusiveness, isolation and his pursuit of his art has always intrigued me. Up to this point my favorite biography on Gould had been the Otto Fredrick "A Life in Variations", so I had a pre-conceived notion that this book may just have been be a re-telling of all the stories and interviews I . Not a monkey! A comprehensive reflection on a very ordinary man with an extraordinary gift. For him, it was just the way his mind worked. The book delves into tedious musical detail, but so did Gould. I think he would have been a happier man if he could have escaped the public eye, but his ability put him in the forefront and at tbe same time, it cast him out. He was not comfortable being the monkey who could per
He also provides ample evidence that the most widely spread stories obscure how resolutely normal Gould was (and, one repeatedly discovers, utterly and charmingly Canadian). From Publishers Weekly More than two decades after his death at the age of 50, Glenn Gould remains one of the most famous (and in some circles controversial) pianists of the 20th century. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. For those who already love Gould's performances with all his extraneous noises, this biography provides welcome and equal insight into his life and music, while anyone new to the subject may not even want to wait until finishing the book to run out and buy their first CD. More importantly Bazzana
In Wondrous Strange, Kevin Bazzana vividly recaptures the life of Glenn Gould, one of the most celebrated pianists of our time. Drawing on twenty years of intensive research, including unrestricted access to Gould's private papers and interviews with scores of friends and colleagues, many of them never interviewed before, Bazzana sheds new light on such topics as Gould's family history, his secretive sexual life, and the mysterious problems that afflicted his hands in his later years. The author places Gould's distinctive traits--his eccentric interpretations, his garish onstage demeanor, his resistance to convention--against the backdrop of his religious, upper- middle-class Canadian childhood, illuminating the influence of Gould's mother as well as the lasting impact of the only piano teacher Gould ever had. Here, too, are Gould's interests away from the piano, from his ambitious but failed effort to be a composer to his innovative brand of "contrapuntal radio." Richly illustrated with rare photographs, Wondrous Strange is a superbly written accou