Pianists, September 2025
This Week in Classical Music: September 29, 2025. Three pianists. We’ve been ignoring the pianists for fairly some time, so this week we’ll cowl each the present and former ones. Glenn Gould was born on September 25th of 1932. He was born Glenn Gold in Toronto, however his household wasn’t Jewish: Gold was anglicized from Grieg, and Glenn’s father was a distant relative of the good Norwegian. In 1939, the Golds modified their identify to Gould exactly as a result of Gold sounded too Jewish, not a great factor within the antisemitic ambiance of Toronto on the time. (One would possibly say that issues haven’t modified a lot since then, given the nation’s strident pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli stance). Glenn Gould is rightfully well-known for his interpretations of Bach, however his repertoire was a lot broader than that. There’s an attention-grabbing 1962 recording of him enjoying Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1 with the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting. Gould wished to take very gradual tempos, with Bernstein disliking his method a lot that earlier than the efficiency, he made an surprising four-minute speech declaring the disagreements and elevating a rhetorical query of “who’s the boss, the soloist or the conductor?” We should always level out that Gould’s tempos, although very gradual, are, general, inside the conventional bounds. For instance, the primary motion of a traditional recording made by Emil Gilels and Eugen Jochum takes 24 minutes; Gould and Bernstein play it in 25 minutes and 50 seconds. The entire concerto with Gould-Bernstein lasts 53 minutes and several other seconds, lower than two minutes longer than Gilels-Johum’s. That mentioned, we admit that Gould’s interpretation will not be with out eccentricities. The standard of this dwell recording is poor; you’ll additionally discover that again then, folks coughed throughout the efficiency as a lot as they do now. Nonetheless, we expect it’s very a lot price a attempt (right here).
The French pianist Alfred Cortot was born on September 26th of 1877, in Nyon, Switzerland, to a French father and Swiss mom. A central determine in French music of the primary half of the 20th century, he was additionally a conductor, a instructor, a founding father of a music faculty, and a member of the well-known trio with Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals. Cortot’s repertoire was very massive, from early Baroque to his contemporaries, corresponding to Stravinsky and the younger French composers. He was particularly recognized for his interpretations of Romantic music, Chopin’s specifically. In comparison with the virtuosos of at present, Cortot’s method was removed from excellent, however the lyricism and the Aristocracy of his interpretations are unquestionable. What’s questionable, although, is Cortot’s conduct throughout the German occupation of France. He served within the Vichy authorities and was near Maréchal Pétain, the top of the collaborationist authorities. In 1942, he went to Berlin and performed with the Berlin Philharmonic. There have been different episodes of this sort, massive and small. After the liberation of France, Cortot was arrested as a collaborator. After a trial, which ended with a slap on the wrist, prohibiting him from performing in France for one 12 months, he moved to Switzerland, however returned to France, rehabilitated, in 1949. He was enthusiastically accepted by the French and continued a really profitable profession for a number of extra years. Cortot died in 1962.
And final, however not least, is Vladimir Horowitz. He was born on October 1st of 1903. Horowitz heard Cortot play in 1919 and was so impressed that he requested Cortot to present him classes. Cortot demurred, however later, within the Nineteen Thirties, he met a by then well-known Horowitz many instances and even carried out his performances of Beethoven’s Fifth and Rachmaninov’s Third piano concertos.
