Latest Quora Answer

Latest Quora answer

There should be, and no doubt is, a way to automatically have something from Quora post on Tumblr, but I haven’t figured out how to do it. So this was the question:

What other pianists are there who play Bach similarly to Gould? I.e. quite detached and rhythmic (no rubato)

And this was my answer:

No one plays similarly to Gould, so let’s clear that up straightaway — if by “similarly to Gould” you mean with a combination of swinging musicality and keen precision unlike anyone on the world stage before him (with the possible exception of his teacher, Alberto Guerrero). I’d dispute your “no rubato” idea, but I’ll take it as shorthand for his unprecedented attention to rhythmic detail.

However, there is one guy out there who plays with a /much more/ pronounced detaché and accent: the Finnish player (and former student of the great Ralf Gothóni): **Olli Mustonen**. There is no one who plays like him either! He’s got a fair lot of Bach in his rep, so you can get a sense of the differences (or similarities, if you like) between him and Gould. I don’t think of it that way, personally, but simply and needlessly to say I like them both very, very much. If you haven’t heard him, I encourage you to do so.

Well this is an idea. I like it.

Dexter Dalwood (British, b. 1960), Glenn Gould, 2016. Oil on canvas, 150 x 202 cm

Bill Evans? Or Lennie Tristano? Or...?

Hélène Grimaud transforms the recital?

Well I don’t know if she has or not but she’s certainly doing something very lovely and I don’t care whether it’s an innovation or not. From Medici, here is the blurb:

Hélène Grimaud transforms the genre of the recital, integrating a performance of solo piano works by Romantic and Impressionist composers with a multimedia experience. Her recital is interwoven with the recorded music of composer Nitin Sawhney, and set against the backdrop of visual artist Mat Hennek's photography. The film presented here takes the live experience to the next level by interpreting the original performance through the birds-eye view of the filmmakers, more directly connecting the viewer with the artists and their creations.

By giving full weight to the visual interjections (“transitions” they call them here), it brings to my mind something that is vital to the live experience. As I’ve long ago encountered and answered the question, via Gould, what is added in the event of live performance? Other than obviously a great majority (we must assume) of performers prefer it to the studio for the *joie de schwing* it brings to their playing, the human connection and all that booshwha. Well, unless (maybe) it’s a great grand orchestra in a great hall with three full choirs, my answer is: nothing. Or unless your only home sound source is a pocket radio (and with today’s technology even that doesn’t necessarily mean the sound is flat or tinny). I will grant the sanctification of the studied moment, the expressly non-multithreaded focus on an experience (never absolute, but intentional and respectful of the work and yourself), and grant too that this is not the same as putting on background music while you work at other tasks. But the theatre Ms Grimaud is staging here is of a different order, subtly, one that increases the spectacle while decreasing the spectacular. Sea change? Probably not. But she’s bringing the century-and-a-half old form into territory occupied mostly by newer music performance formats and, whatever the Hamburgers in the Elbphilharmonie might have thought, I think it’s delightful.

Conlon Nancarrow: Selected Studies for Player Piano, «Soundings Book» 4, Edited by Peter Garland, Texts by Gordon Mumma, Charles Amirkhanian, John Cage, Roger Reynolds, and James Tenney, Soundings Press, Washington, D.C., 1977

Takahiro Yoshikawa’s Debussy

Takahiro Yoshikawa is a piano player from Nishinomiya, Japan who released last year (2017) on the Ypsilon International label a very standard Debussy program: the Bergamasque, Estampes, both books of Images. But the playing is unique for the repertoire. And very enjoyable to my ear, not only for its novelty, which is remarkable, but too many players, to the point of stereotype, seem to have a built-in aversion to pairing Debussy with clarity. Not so Mr Yoshikawa. The playing has all the loveliness it needs without automatic over-pedaling. I cannot think of anyone other than, perhaps on occasion, Gieseking, possibly Michelangeli, with anything like a similar approach. And lest anyone think perhaps his foot is broken, he can certainly depress the sustain: cf. Estampes, though, to repeat, appropriately and without heaviness. Rather than trying to impress with the evenness of harmonic arpeggiation, the ending of Pagodes is slowed and articulated, bringing a whole new sense of attention to the coda. Additionally, while I enjoy a whirlwind tempo in Debussy as much as the next guy, it’s not always necessary. The Passapied here, for example, is played with delicacy and restraint which, paradoxically, gives it power and strength. I won’t go into an analysis of each work, but overall simply to say it is worth many listens and a wide audience. I’ll provide the former and hope for a more perfect world that makes possible the latter.