sinfonia bwv 826

[mathieu]

any tips on getting a gould -like staccato

mathieu

[bernhard]

Get a Gould piano (his piano was heavily engineered)

[mound]

wow.. at first, I thought to myself "man, what kind of half a** response was that??" Then, I saw it was Bernhard?!@ What gives? Your response totally went over my head! What did Gould do to his piano? And, getting a Gould like tone is really about hardware??



With respect,

-Paul

[bernhard]

Yes, his piano (Steinway CD318) was doctored to sound more and more like a harpsichord (one wonders why he just didn’t get a harpsichord ). The work was done by Steinway technicians under his direction. His main tuner gives his thoughts on the matter in the movie “32 Shorts about Glenn Gould”. (At one point his piano was also dropped by movers and cracked the cast iron frame and had to be rebuilt. Despite this restorative work Gould complained that it never again sounded the same)

For a bit more detail, have a look here:

https://www.glenngould.org/mail/archives/f_minor/msg06848.html

Google  - Glenn Gould steinway cd318 piano – and you will find out more.

Incidentally this is not unheard off. Horowtiz did the same (or something similar) to his piano for his recordings of the Scarlatii sonatas.

People keep waxing lyrical about “touch” little realising that touch has little to do with how a piano sounds (pianists suffer from “touch envy” – in most instruments you can physically influence the resulting tone. Pianists, due to the physics of their instrument can only control dynamics – how loud or how soft to sound a note – agogics  - how long the note will last  - and to a certain extent the accumulation of overtones – by using the damper pedal). But the superstition of piano touch is one of the hardest to dislodge, since it leads to the (false) conclusion than if that is the case then the pianist has no expressive input. It leads to ridiculous finger vibrato on a key, when that cannot possibly influence the sound, done by people who should know better like Arrau and even Gould himself.

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[mound]

I actually just recently saw most of  “32 Shorts about Glenn Gould” (caught it on TV, missed the first half hour or so) I guess I missed the part about his piano techs. I did notice the "vibrato" of his fingers as he played.. I even tried that myself the next day, adn thought to myself "this doesn't change anything?" -  glad to know I'm not missing something

-Paul

[danyal]

any tips on getting a gould -like staccato

mathieu

Metronome practise. My friend just recently played that, and with the correct practise, got it neater and faster than Argerich.

[00range]

I'm curious, Bernhard, as to your opinion of Gould's Inventions and Sinfonias; I seem to recall you mentioning Rosalyn Tureck being critical of his playing, do you share these sentiments?

[Barbosa-piano]

Get a Gould piano (his piano was heavily engineered)

 May I ask, do you know which one? His studio one or his personal one? (unless he used his personal one for recordings).

I was watching The Art of Piano, and his personal Steinway piano does sound like a harpsichord... But some other recordings of Bach's Inventions were not recorded on that piano. One passage I read on Charles Rosen's book Piano Notes, said that Gould made the hammer bounce back and forth repeatedly (heard on his recordings of Bach's Inventions and others) either by breaking the resistence of the keys by pushing the key half way basically, or by disregulating the action slightly.

I once in Brazil, played on a British piano (which the name I do not recall...) that had the feature of imitating a harpsichord, by pressing the middle pedal. The owner said that they they had to remove the stripe that had little pieces of metal on, that made the harpsichord sound, because something was broken. But after researching it on the internet, I found others with the same feature. Just a curiosity...

And yes, the kind of piano that is being played reflects on the performance and on the sound. That is one of the reasons why many pianists have such unique sounds. Gould is a good example, Horowitz liked the N.Y. Steinway's bell like sound, and Michelangelo always had his personal technician by him to make the wanted adjustments...

[mathieu]

Posted by: mound

Metronome practise. My friend just recently played that, and with the correct practise, got it neater and faster than Argerich.

but it sounds better with light rubato applied, but I will practise it as you suggested then apply rubato later  thankyou

mathieu

[mound]

I didn't post the sentence you (mathieu) quoted.

[mathieu]

my apologies mound

mathieu

[piazzo23]

Yes, his piano (Steinway CD318) was doctored to sound more and more like a harpsichord (one wonders why he just didn’t get a harpsichord ). The work was done by Steinway technicians under his direction. His main tuner gives his thoughts on the matter in the movie “32 Shorts about Glenn Gould”. (At one point his piano was also dropped by movers and cracked the cast iron frame and had to be rebuilt. Despite this restorative work Gould complained that it never again sounded the same)

For a bit more detail, have a look here:

https://www.glenngould.org/mail/archives/f_minor/msg06848.html

Google  - Glenn Gould steinway cd318 piano – and you will find out more.

Incidentally this is not unheard off. Horowtiz did the same (or something similar) to his piano for his recordings of the Scarlatii sonatas.

People keep waxing lyrical about “touch” little realising that touch has little to do with how a piano sounds (pianists suffer from “touch envy” – in most instruments you can physically influence the resulting tone. Pianists, due to the physics of their instrument can only control dynamics – how loud or how soft to sound a note – agogics  - how long the note will last  - and to a certain extent the accumulation of overtones – by using the damper pedal). But the superstition of piano touch is one of the hardest to dislodge, since it leads to the (false) conclusion than if that is the case then the pianist has no expressive input. It leads to ridiculous finger vibrato on a key, when that cannot possibly influence the sound, done by people who should know better like Arrau and even Gould himself.

Best wishes,
Bernhard

More info:
Luis Ascot was the first invited to play a recital on Gould´s original piano in 1988.