Glenn Gould's Steinway CD318

[Alde]

Has anybody performed on this piano?  I am aware that the National Library of Canada has a concert auditorium which rents this piano for use in recitals.  I just wanted to know the current condition.  Glenn Gould used this piano the most for recording.

[gerry]

I wonder if it comes with his old round squeaky piano stool?

[thalberg]

It's not really the piano he used.  It is.....but it isn't.

Toward the end of his life, he had to have it rebuilt because it just simply needed it.  The technician Steinway assigned to the job was not able to retain the piano's original attributes, and when Gould got it back, he was devastated.  He said his own piano was now a stranger to him.  He never forgave Steinway, and played Yamahas for the short remainder of his life.  His last recording of the Goldbergs was on a Yamaha.  This is written about in Franz Mohr's book, "my life with the great pianists."

[chickering9]

I wonder if it comes with his old round squeaky piano stool?

It might have been old and perhaps squeaky, but it wasn't round:





Ultimately quite worn out:



The chair with the piano:



But this one is *most* interesting--note the crossed legs!



(His father made that chair for him.)

[gerry]

Thanks Thalberg for the correction and the pictures. I guess the recording sessions must have been a challenge what which his vocalizing and his squeaky chair - I understand one company offered to build him an exact replica that wouldn't make noise but of course he refused. Quite a character...

[bachapprentice]

Thanks Thalberg for the correction and the pictures. I guess the recording sessions must have been a challenge what which his vocalizing and his squeaky chair - I understand one company offered to build him an exact replica that wouldn't make noise but of course he refused. Quite a character...

That character was one of the greatest pianists of all time and perhaps the best pianist playing Bach.  A little respect.

[gutenberg]

I understand the piano was dropped at some point which is why it needed the work. I can appreciate his grief. In one of my favorite cd's, the piano sounds great.

[liszt-essence]

That character was one of the greatest pianists of all time and perhaps the best pianist playing Bach.  A little respect.

So what is he was the greatest pianist playing bach? That doesn't make him a better person than the next best neighbour. Respect has got NOTHING to do with succes, or achievement. It's something you hold in your heart, and has got everything to do with love.

[term]

That character was one of the greatest pianists of all time and perhaps the best pianist playing Bach.  A little respect.

lol.
people may say about him whatever they want. Even the last drunkard in a ghetto south buenos aires.
who cares?

[gerry]

Hey guys, lighten up. This thread was only commenting on his colorful eccentricities NOT his musicianship. I don't think anyone commenting above doubted that his contribution to the musical world was unique to say the least, but an important one none-the-less. In a world that seems to be becoming more and more imitative and derivitave we all welcome the true individual.