Remembering Glenn Gould

[Clive]

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of his death. None of his records means as much to me as the second version of the Goldberg Variations, recorded a year before he fell victim to a stroke. We're so lucky that director Bruno Monsaingeon was on hand with his video cameras. For some reason, the DVD has been out of circulation for quite a while. This YouTube clip contains the opening aria and the first half-dozen variations. Magical.

Gould looks terrible - fat, puffy, pasty, partly unshaven. His dark blue Viyella shirt, with the cuffs unbuttoned, looks simply sleazy. And all the celebrated "mannerisms" are on display; he sways and sings and sighs and makes gestures of conducting himself and more gestures that seem to signify his going into a trance. Yet as one watches, one gradually abandons all these prejudiced observations and becomes a participant in Gould's extraordinary performance. Not only is he playing beautifully, and passionately, but he looks serenely and profoundly happy in his transcendental ability to do what he is doing. Never before has he so clearly achieved his youthful goal of ecstasy.

Otto Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations.