Glenn Gould - Concerto In F Major, Partita No. 1 In B-Flat Major, Partita No. 2 In C Minor

Glenn Gould’s playing is fantastic, it really touches me. He was the first player endorsed by a big classical company to make cuts, note-by-note sometimes, editing like they do in rock ‘n’ roll. He didn’t have computers at that time of course, so had to take the big tapes, cut them, stick them. He did this many times and this was poorly perceived by people on the classical scene, because they had an idea of how things should be done. He was also very innovative when he was recording or playing – he would sing at the same time, and wanted to keep his vocalising in the recordings though he was told he couldn’t.

There are interview books where a journalist asks him a two or three line question and he gives 20-30 pages of answer, because he was very smart. But also, when he was interviewed as a young man, he said the age at which he would stop playing and the age he’d die. He stopped playing at 31 and died at 50, like he’d had a vision.