THE RETURN OF CANADA’S GOULD RUSH
Legendary, late Canadian pianist is hot once again; an author writing a new book about him explains why
For what would have been his 85th birthday, Glenn Gould’s time seems to have come again. The Toronto Symphony is turning its season opening Sept. 22 and 23 concerts hosted by Colm Feore at Roy Thomson Hall to music associated with Gould. Then there’s the Sept. 23 Joshua Cohen lecture at 2:30 p.m. in the Glenn Gould Studio titled Gould’s Variations & the Human Qualities that Foster Remarkable Creativity, and Glenn Gould: The Man & The Music, an Oct. 4 book launch and performance of The Goldberg Variations in Windsor, sponsored by Windsor Symphony and BookFest Windsor.
To find more about what’s behind such renewed interest in Gould — Sony Classical just released The Goldberg Variations — The Complete
1955 Recording Sessions with seven CDs and an LP — we turn to the Questions & Answer format mastered by Gould himself. In February 1974, eight years before his death, he pulled off the ultimate Q&A triple whammy for High Fidelity magazine with “Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould.” (a sample: “‘Are there any off-limit areas?’ Gould: ‘I certainly can’t think of any — apart from music, of course.’ ”)
So is all this just about the anniversary of Glenn Gould’s birth?
Yes and no. Gould’s 85th fits in tidily with Canada’s 150th anniversary. There’s something profoundly Canadian about Gould, about his idiosyncrasies, about his need to be loved, about his love of the CBC. Look at his itineraries of choice: cottage country, northern bush land and the TransCanada Highway. This is Canada. But there’s another reason: we need him — still.
Need him?
Yes, need. Something that deep.
Beyond music you mean.
It starts with music. For all his alleged weirdnesses Gould offers an important music career role model. Canadian classical musicians are major successes worldwide. Many followed Gould’s example of shaping their own careers to suit their personalities. The next generation of performers need to keep his example in mind. And that extends to quitting live performance when it feels right as he did in 1964. He was every bit as much a media figure as a musician. We’re beginning to forget about him this way. His voice, his attitude, his weird impersonations on the CBC were part of our daily media life. In his prime he was the most singularly individual person in classical music — and beyond it. He was rightly included in that famous 1967 iconic Canadian photograph taken by the Toronto Telegram showing Gould with Morley Callaghan, Sir Ernest MacMillan, Kate Reid, A.Y. Jackson and Marshall McLuhan.
A Canadian intellectual, then.
Beyond that, too. He was more like Foster Hewitt or Pierre Trudeau or Leonard Cohen, a very popular Canadian personality wrapped in a Canadian sound and attitude. More than anything, Gould was Toronto. I can’t remember the number of people who over the years would say, “I was in the park and bumped into that nice Mr. Gould. He wanted to talk all day.”
If someone knew nothing about Gould where would they start?
Go sit on the bench outside the CBC building, 250 Front St. W. opposite Ruth Abernethy’s Gould sculpture. It’s so real you’ll feel like having a chat. Then listen to 1955’s Goldberg
Variations. It’s a start.
Peter Goddard, a former Star music critic, talks about his new book, The Great Gould, at Word on the Street Sunday Sept. 24 at 3:15 p.m. at the Vibrant Voices of Ontario tent.