Yeah, it makes you wonder doesn't it. I hope Andreas and me didn't look like this when playing our 4-hand Mozart
Even though they're not exactly unattractive, this puts me off more than the silly faces of LL. At least he is sort of funny and spontaneous, and probably genuine, whereas this is just looks like corny acting. It's probably very good Mozart playing, though I am not an expert in that.


I can't help liking the guy. He may have a little bit of a star attitude but I believe also he is modest and probably good fun. The real arrogant stars that make me want to puke are the rap stars with their LA mansions and Ferraris, who get the millions hosed towards them for producing sh*t noise of no value whatsoever, and who behave like they earn every respect in the world and have a right to grab every female they fancy.

Whoa, I guess that went a bit OT But I feel better now

I'll give you this re LL: I loved his Bartok Sonata; but I'll just listen to it with my eyes closed. Unfortunately, with Gould I have to close my ears, but that makes hearing the music pretty difficult.

I have played with LL twice with the Phoenix Symphony. The first time was when he first was making the rounds as a soloist. We all thought he was a tremendously gifted pianist and sensitive interpreter. The second time was last year. Just by counting the number of people in his entourage, I'd say he had definitely reached the superstar level. He performed a Chopin concerto, and though he could have performed it unconscious, backward, in a straight jacket, his interpretation had definitely reached the "affected" stage - stopping just short of the "Liberace" level. His facial mannerisms did not bother me as much as his musical ones. Though he was indeed cordial and respectful, his tempos were unpredictably flighty to the point of being nearly impossible to follow. I am a pianist and knew the concerto, but it was easy to get hung out to dry nonetheless. When she was younger, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg used to be like this too. We used to say she wasn't a soloist so much as a "concerto stylist". LL is not quite that, and is sometimes stunningly good, but at other times he certainly pushes the limits of good taste pretty far.

Yes absolutely, he can be pretty exasperating. A mixed bag indeed. But when he's good, he is very good.

I just watched a series of videos from a masterclass conducted by LangLang in which he has risen quite a bit in my eyes. The entire masterclass is on youtube, check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcB1grpP ... re=related

I was quite surprised.

I've just watched some of the series (beginning from the part 4 which you linked here) and am very impressed! At least the part 4-5 is very instructive (also to me) and LL is a serious musician and good teacher there. BTW I was very sorry about that poor girl with the Waldstein sonata. She seems to have chosen/played a too difficult piece for her.

Very good master class.

My former teacher (no mean artist herself) told me about attending a LL masterclass, and being very impressed by his musicality and sincerity. I guess that has always colored my appreciation of him a bit.

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No need to get nasty . Given that music is an art of sound, and people (and soloists) at a recital are disturbed by sneezing, coughing, OMG talking, squeeky chairs, noisy air systems, crashing doors, passing sirens, overflying aircraft, etc. in short, anything but absolute silence, what can one do when it is the ARTIST that provides the noise? The arrogance is amply demonstrated in that if Gould performed IN PUBLIC and members of the audience were to hum along, HE would never have tolerated the very behavior he practiced (sort of like Keith Jarrett). Now who in their right mind would criticize Richter or Gilels?

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Well it is obvious that you and I will never agree on this but that's OK. I feel that you are so enamored with the messenger that you miss the sender. It isn't about Landowska, Gould, Richter, Tureck or even Felstman or Perahia, its about Bach. Performers are to convey the composer interpretively, and I think that Gould did a fine job of doing that, except that he marred everything by interpolating not just his spirit, but his noise too. No man or woman has the right or priviledge to do that. Everyone does have the right and priviledge to pursue the beauty of a composer's work to the best of their ability for themselves. For some, the quality that they achieve is also suitable for others to enjoy. For a few, it is of such high standard that it is for all (the world) to experience, but it does not mean necessarily that it will be liked by all. Given Gould's own expressed opinion of other people (the rest of humanity besides himself), it is apparent that he was little more than a Bach monastic, who enjoyed his own private charismatic or mystical worship and had no interest in the leading of community worship of Bach. So be it. I say the following with all seriousness as a physician: Gould was not normal, in the sense that people who go around talking to themselves are not normal (let alone his microphobia, and I don't mean microphones). Say he wasn't a pianist, but a harpist or violinist, or better yet a flautist or an oboist. Would you still think he was Zeus himself descended from Parnasus to reveal the great Bach through performances with humming and all? Please. You should note, that my crazy hypothetical just now removes the pianist entirely for the sake of the composer! That's where the importance is to be. But alas, others will think otherwise. And so the world turns.

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What a great discussion my post about LL has sparked ! One that could go on for ever and ever, as both contestants hurl massive iron-clad arguments into each other without yielding so much as one inch.

Personally I do not understand GG worshipping any more than I understand LL bashing. For all his undeniable genius, I find GG at times totally perverse, dissecting the music like a pathologist, and producing performances close to parody of the music. Obviously being such a genius he's allowed all that, plus hum through it all, while LL is denied the right to pull a face or shape a performance the way he wants it (this is then dubbed a massacre). It seems a bit unfair to me. While LL does not have GG's massive intellect and contrapuntal skill, I do find him the more versatile musician of the two. Where GG is a man on a mission, LL is a guy enjoying himself. Al least you have the possibility to ignore his funny faces, while you can't well shut out GG's obtrusive vocals.

Nice speculation whether or not Bach would have tolerated GG's humming, or even have approved of his playing. It's possible, just as IMHO it's possible that Bartok would have approved of LL's rendition of his Sonata. As is rightly said, we do not know the composer's "will" never mind how many directions they wrote in their scores.