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Just to reprise from many hours ago, in case you missed it, tonight's final concert broadcast on Canada Live, from the Variations On Gould celebrations, is a perfomance by pianist MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN. He'll perform a programme devoted to works from the 1st and 2nd Viennese School, from Haydn and Beethoven to Schoenberg and Berg - all works that Gould championed.
No doubt about it, it's been a bit of a Gouldathon. I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard, and can still hear, at Concerts On Demand -- many of the concerts broadcast during the Variations On Gould fest are available there.
Thurday night you can also hear the final concert of the series, Live To Air (as always, you must imagine some kind of fanfare to accompany those words) from the Glenn Gould Studio.
And that concert features (and here you can insert a drum roll) MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, at the piano.He'll perform a programme devoted to works from the 1st and 2nd Viennese School, from Haydn and Beethoven to Schoenberg and Berg - all works that Gould championed.
btw, at time o'bloggin', there were some tickets left for this concert, if you happen to be in the vicinity. If not, you can always tune into Canada Live.
...Mr. Gould is Here..." is the name of a concert. Yes, it is. You may have thought, hey, great name for a kid's book, and it could be that as well, but in this case, it's a concert that pays tribute to Gould's unusual creative vision, and striking individualism. And you can hear this concert from Montreal Wednesday night on Canada Live. It's part of CBC Radio 2's Variations On Gould. But you probably figured that.
What you'll hear is three new works commissioned for the occasion by CBC Radio, from composers Chantale Laplante, (who has the most marvellous picture of a two-lane highway on her website), Louis Dufort (who has a most intriguing picture on his) and Martin Tétreault, (his "self-portrait" photo is the ultimate anti-Facebook shot going).
Also on Wednesday night's broadcast, a rare performance of Glenn Gould's only major composition: his String Quartet, Opus 1 featuring violinists Jonathan Crow and Olivier Thouin, violist Neal Gripp and cellist Brian Manker.
There's been a fair bit of talk of Gould's Idea Of North documentary in recent days, as a source of musical inspiration, as a starting point to consider Canada's north. But I don't think the "sound documentary" has been aired until tonight.
So you read it here (if not first, close to, I'll bet): This evening The Signal plays the whole documentary.
And here's one idea of what the north meant to Gould, from the official record co. Glenn Gould website:
"To him, the North represented solitude, independence, reasonableness, courage, elusiveness, spirituality, strength of character, adherence to laws, moral rectitude, and peace."
Tonight's Signal programme also includes the Fantasia And Fugue by composer Chan Ka Nin, commissioned by the CBC and performed in honour of Glenn Gould's 75th anniversary by pianist Lydia Wong.
A reminder that you can hear Hilario Duran and David Virelles, two really fabulous Cuban-Canadian piano players, performing music they've written inspired by Glenn Gould. This concert will be broadcast live this evening, on Canada Live.
They represent two generations of Cuban-Canadian pianists, the younger rising star, David Virelles, and the established virtuoso, Hilario Duran.
I heard David Virelles on our local morning show today, talking about when he was a music student still living in Cuba, and his teacher played him some Glenn Gould. What impressed him as a kid was the way Gould had such an individual style.
More recently Virelles has been listening to Gould's radio docs, and he described them as a "vehicle for composition," suggesting they show how Gould saw/heard "music in everything."
Should be a very interesting concert.
You may have been curious about this concert if you saw it blogged about earlier -- Sudanese-Canadian Waleed Abdulhamid's take on the music of Glenn Gould. Now you can hear it as a Concert On Demand.
“Glenn Gould opened a door for me,” says Abdulhamid. “I heard a freedom in the way he played the Goldberg Variations. And I felt I really wanted to perform this music in a pan-African way.”
Waleed brought his band WALEED KUSH to Glenn Gould Studio to participate in CBC Radio’s “Variations on Gould”. “I want to honour Glenn Gould’s creativity,” he says, “and to bring my own Sudanese view of music to Bach’s mighty Goldberg Variations.”
The piece was commissioned by Craig Scott earlier this year.
African Goldberg Variations at Concerts on Demand.
This looks so interesting. Hilario Duran and David Virelles, two really fabulous Cuban piano players, both living in Canada, performing Live To Air music they've written inspired by Glenn Gould. (The show is happening Tuesday night at the Glenn Gould Studio, and at time o'bloggin' there are still some tickets, plus the show will be broadcast on Canada Live.)
They also represent two generations of Cuban-Canadian pianists, the younger rising star, David Virelles, and the established virtuoso, Hilario Duran. They'll be performing with their own ensembles, and some pieces with string quartet. They'll also play together -- something I understand they've not done before rehearsals for this concert.
What will the music be like? I honestly don't know. But I'm extremely curious. I've heard both guys play Cuban music and jazz, both have formidable technique and are great musicians, so the forecast is excellent.
A brief reminder -- pianist André Laplante pays tribute to Glenn Gould this evening with a programme that includes piano works by Scriabin, the 7th Sonata of Prokofiev, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, and is broadcast Live To Air from the Glenn Gould Studio, on Canada Live. Broadcast Time: 8 p.m. (9 AT, 9:30 NT).
It was nice to read these reactions from a blogger a-bloggin' at Firsthand Freelance about the Variations On Gould extravaganza on Thursday presented by Espace Musique. (6 pianists, 6 cities, a lot of effort and passion.)
Seems to have inspired her to think about perhaps taking up piano again herself -- which aside from the pleasures of hearing the music, is probably the best impact of a broadcast event like this, of music like this. To paraphrase an old line from Doonesbury, the world needs more musicians!
Well, some might not agree. But I do. As long as they play in tune.
Not only is it Glenn Gould’s 75th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his death, but this year also marks the 50th anniversary of Gould’s historic Russian debut. (Listen, this is nuthin' compared to baseball stats...)
Anyway, fittingly enough, on Monday night pianist André Laplante pays tribute to Gould with a programme that includes piano works by Scriabin, the 7th Sonata of Prokofiev, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, and is broadcast Live To Air from the Glenn Gould Studio.
Which means if you are in the T Dot, as almost no one says anymore, you might be able to be in the audience, if tickets are still available -- just check the listing for André Laplante - Glenn Gould - Russia and Russian Chamber Music.
The broadcast can also be heard on your radio of course, on Canada Live.
In case you are wondering which concert is being broadcast on Sunday night as part of the Variations On Gould series, wonder no more. In fact there are two. First, the music that is undoubtedly most associated with Glenn Gould – Bach’s Goldberg Variations – played by pianist Minsoo Sohn.
And the second, a really quite daring musical idea is presented, as Sudanese-Canadian Waleed Abdulhamid and his band Waleed Kush offer an African interpretation of the Goldbergs.
“Glenn Gould opened a door for me,” says Abdulhamid. “I heard a freedom in the way he played the Goldberg Variations. And I felt I really wanted to perform this music in a North African way.”
In case you missed my much earlier post on tonight's Variations On Gould concerts, here's the scoop:
Six songwriters explore the "idea of north" in a concert recorded on Friday at Ottawa's Museum of Civilization, and broadcast tonight on Canada Live. Representing everything from throat singing (Tanya Tagaq) to acoustic instrumentals (Creaking Tree String Quartet) to art-pop (Veda Hille), the musicians will react, re-interpret, re-think and re-write the some of the ideas of north presented in Glenn Gould's 1967 CBC documentary, The Idea Of North, through specially commissioned, new works.
Here's the full line-up of participating musicians.
Tanya Tagaq
Veda Hille
Creaking Tree String Quartet
(And since I gave a brief description of the music of the above, here are some brief descriptions of the music below!)
Catherine MacLellan (folk from PEI)
Grand Analog (crafty hip hop from Winnipeg)
The Flaps (imaginary soundtrack music from Ottawa)
Also on the show, a second Gould-related concert from Calgary: Close in Distant Cold Light by David Berezan.
It's an homage to Gould's Idea of North, and is done partly in the style of his original piece, but also in the style of the Berezan's electroacoustic music.
So you'll hear interviews with people around the world (mainly from "southern" countries) talking about ideas of "north", and also transformed sounds exploring different characteristics of "north."
This week on Sound Advice, host Rick Phillips continues exploring the new boxed set of all the Beethoven symphonies (played by the Russian National Orchestra under the direction of Mikhail Pletnev).
In the Library, more in the series Great Gould Recordings. This week, it’s Gould's controversial 1962 live concert recording of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor Leonard Bernstein so strongly disagreed with certain aspects of Gould’s interpretation that he gave a disclaimer to the audience (included in the recording) before the performance began! (Although not without a certain amount of humour, and also with a great deal of regard for Gould.)
Pretty incredible though, when you think about it -- one artist issuing a disclaimer before both artist's perform together...and not to steal Rick's thunder, but you may want to check out this archival clip of the incident. (And of course, to hear the music you will need to tune into Sound Advice...)
A distant early warning of a good kind -- that a fresh take on ideas of what Canada's north is all about is presented Saturday night as part of Variations On Gould.
Six songwriters explore the "idea of north" in a concert recorded on Friday at Ottawa's Museum of Civilization, broadcast tonight on Canada Live. Representing everything from throat singing (Tanya Tagaq) to acoustic instrumentals (Creaking Tree String Quartet) to art-pop (Veda Hille), the musicians will react, re-interpret, re-think and re-write the some of the ideas of north presented in Glenn Gould's 1967 CBC documentary, The Idea Of North, through specially commissioned, new works.
Here's the full line-up of participating musicians.
Tanya Tagaq
Veda Hille
Creaking Tree String Quartet
(And since I gave a brief description of the music of the above, here are some brief descriptions of the music below!)
Catherine MacLellan (folk from PEI)
Grand Analog (crafty hip hop from Winnipeg)
The Flaps (imaginary soundtrack music from Ottawa)
Also on the show, a second Gould-related concert from Calgary: Close in Distant Cold Light by David Berezan.
It's an homage to Gould's Idea of North, and is done partly in the style of his original piece, but also in the style of the Berezan's electroacoustic music.
So you'll hear interviews with people around the world (mainly from "southern" countries) talking about ideas of "north", and also transformed sounds exploring different characteristics of "north."
An evening reminder of tonight's Variations On Gould concert, featuring the multi-talented Canadian jazzman, Don Thompson, and the singularly talented Paul Galbraith.
Don Thompson and Paul Gailbraith , pianist/bassist/vibist and guitarist, respectively, take the stage to pay tribute to Glenn Gould with Galbraith’s expanded 8 string Brahms Guitar in transcriptions of Byrd, Schoenberg and Bach. And Bach’s harmonic genius will be explored by Thompson in a jazz quartet setting.
Here's To You listeners are by no means exempting themselves from the Glenn Gould celebrations, -- today you can hear some of your Glenn Gould requests, including the great pianist playing Haydn’s Piano Sonata In E Flat and Bach’s Partita No. 1 In B Flat. (I just thought I should mention that, lest H t Y was feeling left out of the party! Not at all...)
It's hard not to wonder what Glenn Gould would have made of all the attention sent his way, via the Year Of Gould and CBC's own Variations On Gould celebrations.
One thing I bet he would have found most interesting about the latter, is the "variations" aspect of the music that's being created during this ten day salute. The music being created is no mere simulacrum. (At last! The opportunity to use the word "simulacrum.") No, it's about imaginative approaches to a musician whose work inspired on any number of levels.
Friday night's concert features Don Thompson and Paul Gailbraith pianist/bassist/vibist and guitarist, who take the stage to pay tribute to Glenn Gould with Galbraith’s expanded 8 string Brahms Guitar in transcriptions of Byrd, Schoenberg and Bach. And Bach’s harmonic genius will be explored by Thompson in a jazz quartet setting.
Live, and live-to-air, so if you are interested in being part of the radio audience, contact the Glenn Gould Studio.
Tonight, the main event -- not that other concerts Variations On Gould series aren't important -- but this one is an artistic and technical undertaking on quite a scale: six pianists in six cities playing the Goldberg Variations in a multi-media event produced by Espace Musique, R2's French cousin, and broadcast on Canada Live.
So a few scant hours from now, live-to-air in Gatineau from the Museum Of Civilization, with live relays from studios in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax, you can hear following pianists:
Vancouver: Jane Coop
Edmonton: Wonny Song
Winnipeg: Katherine Chi
Gatineau: David Jalbert
Montréal: Maneli Pirzadeh
Halifax: Richard Raymond
Also, at 8pm eastern time you can watch video of the concert, streamed live online at Espace Musique. [NOTE! This video stream will happen live at 8pm eastern only.]
It would be understandable that it might be hard to keep track of everything during CBC's Variations On Gould celebrations -- indeed, the Gould celebrations around the world right now.
And if you meant to tune into the So You Want to Write A Fugue? concert but forgot, or got too busy washing the dishes, the dog, your collection of salt and pepper shakers, whatever, you will be pleased to know that So You Want To Write A Fugue? is now available as a Concert On Demand.
That motorcycle-riding tenor, Ben Heppner, has even more arrows in his quiver (beyond the fact as well as singing just a bit, he likes to unwind by taking out the two-wheeler). Today he turns radio host, guest-hosting Studio Sparks! Heard him earlier in the week being interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on Radio 1's "Q,", and Mr. Heppner professed to be nervous, but I bet he'll be a swell host. Maybe he'll tell more stories about his biker dude alter ego. Whatever, the main thing is you know it will be in That Voice. Sigh.
btw, Eric Friesen is resting up to host the big Gould extravaganza tonight, which is thoroughly explained in the post previous, just scroll on down a few lines to The Goldberg Relay.
Although it is the wee hours of a new day, it is not too early to mention that on Thursday night, you can hear the centrepiece of Variations on Gould – six pianists in six cities playing the Goldberg Variations, in a multi-media event produced by Espace Musique, R2's French cousin, and broadcast on Canada Live.
It's going to be a pretty incredible event, and I imagine that all involved -- performers, radio producers, technicians -- are a tad nervous, but also very excited.
Here's what will happen. It's a live-to-air in Gatineau from the Museum Of Civilization, with live relays from studios in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax.
Video of the concert will also be streamed live online at Espace Musique. [NOTE! This video stream will happen live at 8pm eastern only.]
And the featured pianists are:
Vancouver: Jane Coop
Edmonton: Wonny Song
Winnipeg: Katherine Chi
Gatineau: David Jalbert
Montréal: Maneli Pirzadeh
Halifax: Richard Raymond
Here's To You springs into Gould action this morning, when Catherine plays part of Gould's acclaimed documentary The Idea Of North. What Gould called his "dream documentary," The Idea Of North was inspired in part by Katherine Anne Porter's Ship Of Fools -- apparently the novel was still among his possessions when he died.
Transcribing music by ear, when you sit in front of your staff paper and try and accurately recreate the music on the page, is one of those great challenges for many a young student of jazz. Well do I recall struggling to notate a Miles Davis solo in my first year of music school, lo these many moons ago.
But when it comes to another meaning of transcription, really arrangements of, say, orchestral works recast as piano scores, we're talking a whole other ballpark -- student efforts of the kind I made are kind of like what your local minor league team is to "going to The Show."
And there are transcriptions by exceptional musicians like Glenn Gould. And Gould's fascination with transcription, particularly with the the works of Wagner, sheds much light on his own approach to to the work.
In the second night of Canada Live's live performances at the Glenn Gould Studio the great pianist, Louis Lortie, explores just that, in a concert called Glenn Gould And The Art Of Transcription. (And at time of blogging there were still tickets available, btw.)
There's a good chance you already know about the concert on Canada Live tonight, as it's been much talked about as the first concert of CBC R2's 10 day long Glenn Gould celebrations, Variations On Gould.
But as well as the much ballyhooed opening concert, So You Want to Write a Fugue, a concert that includes ten works based on the letters in Gould’s name commissioned from ten Toronto composers for ten Toronto pianists, Canada Live will also play two new works that are also based on Gould's name -- but not from classical musicians, from roots artists Daniel Koulack and Richard Moody.
I have a feeling Glenn Gould didn't entertain the notion of "guilty pleasures." There was pleasure, or not. Proof is that Gould declared, more than once, "I am a Streisand freak and make no bones about it. With the possible exception of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, no vocalist has brought me greater pleasure or more insight into the interpreter's art."
This is wonderful to hear. I think more people should simply acknowledge what they love without apology, regardless of its fashionability or not. Not that I have much of a problem with that, long a fan of pop music critics poo-poo. And before it became fashionable to like the pop music that previous eras of critics would have poo-poo'd, were they still critics. If that seems a baffling notion, check out this explanation of Poptimism and Rockism, by Jody Rosen. (Not a new debate, but perhaps new to you, if you don't spend time perusing nerdy music stuff.)
But back to Gould. Today on Tonic it's all about setting the mood for Variations On Gould, as Katie spins Barbra Streisand singing I'm In The Mood For Love.
Many of the musicians who have been guests on Studio Sparks over the past three years have reflected on the influence of Canada's Glenn Gould. And today, in honour of the Gould anniversary, Andre Previn, Jamie Laredo, Emanual Ax and others will share their views on Gould's artistry and impact.
So many musicians have been influenced and inspired by Gould, of course, and not just classical players -- came across these thoughts about the intensity of the reaction jazz pianist Jessica William's had to Gould's playing, in a post simply called Glenn Gould.
As you know, if you read this blog and listen to Radio2, today marks the beginning of Variations On Gould, CBC's homage to Glenn Gould, who would have been 75 today. All the concerts are broadcast live, on Canada Live, and of course depending on where you live you can be part of the audience, if tickets are still available -- check via the full schedule of Gould concerts. Tonight it's So You Want To Write A Fugue.
And here are a couple of fun, Gould-related matters:
The Idea Of Glenn, a little quiz to test your Glenn Gould knowledge.
Excerpts from interviews Glenn Gould did during his career.
No, not me, a fugue I could never write. I stopped with the 12-bar blues. But the men and women listed below wanted to write or play one -- as a tribute to Glenn Gould, and part of the Variations On Gould, CBC R2's Glenn Gould celebrations, which begin Tuesday. You can hear this concert for yourself as the show goes Live To Air!
I had to put that in caps, since there is always something exciting about the live concert broadcast for both performers and audience. (Not to mention radio producers...) If you're in T.O. you can attend in person, if not, tune into Canada Live.
Here's how it works: Ten Canadian Composers wrote preludes and fugues to be performed by ten Canadian pianists. The concert happens at, natch, The Glenn Gould Studio on Tuesday night.
And here are those brave men and women of fugue:
The Writers:
Kati Agócs, St. John’s
Ka Nin Chan, Toronto
Malcolm Forsyth, Edmonton
Stewart Goodyear, Toronto
Gary Kulesha, Toronto
Andrew P. Macdonald, Sherbrooke
Diana McIntosh, Winnipeg
Joclyn Morlock, Vancouver
Heather Schmidt, Toronto
Ana Sokolovic, Montreal
The Players
Gregory Oh
Lydia Wong
Peter Tiefenbach
Stewart Goodyear
Andrew Burashko
Robert Kortgaard
Stephen Clarke
David Swan
Heather Schmidt
Christina Petrowska-Quilco
Attention Beethoven-lovers! This week on Sound Advice, Rick Phillips samples a new boxed set of all nine Beethoven symphonies, played by the Russian National Orchestra under the direction of Mikhail Pletnev.
In the Library, more in the series Great Gould Recordings as CBC honours the 75th anniversary of the legendary pianist’s birth. Rick will continue the Beethoven motif with a look at Gould’s recordings of Franz Liszt’s piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies.
Speaking of CBC's Glenn Gould celebrations, Variations on Gould, there are some really great concerts you can attend, across the country, and of course if you are in T.O., many are being held at the Glenn Gould Studio, fittingly enough.
The Gould celebrations are fast approaching, as CBC R2 marks the what would have been Glenn Gould's 75th bday on September 25th, then continues with concerts and tributes until October 4th, the 25th anniversary of his death.
Naturally the Glenn Gould Studio is home to some very fine concerts as part of the Variations on Gould series in Toronto, and if you are in the vicinity, I suggest getting your tickets while the gettin' is good! (At time of blogging there are still tickets available for Louis Lortie's Glenn Gould And The Art Of Transcription concert on the 26th, for example, but I can't imagine they'll hang around for long.)
There are also Variations On Gould concerts across the country you can attend, plus radio broadcasts, of course. (If you click on the preceding link, you can see the complete schedule.)
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