Brahms: Ballades, Op. 10 & Rhapsodies, Op. 79 - Gould Remastered

Album review

The first of Glenn Gould's posthumously issued recording was this 1983 release of Brahms' Four Ballades, Op. 10, and Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79, reissued here by Sony in 2008. To say it proves as eccentric as Gould's other recordings is only fair. Sometimes, as in the First and Second ballade, Gould is excruciatingly slow in his tempos. Compare his timings with magisterial German pianist Wilhelm Kempff's, for instance. Where Kempff takes 3:44 for the First and 6:20 for the Second ballade, Gould takes 6:49 and 8:34. Just as often, as in the two Rhapsodies, Gould is exceedingly fast. Again, compare his timings with Kempff's: Gould takes 6:54 in the First compared with Kempff's 8:15 and 5:36 in the Second compared with Kempff's 7:15. When heard side by side, Gould and Kempff hardly seem to be playing the same pieces.
But this radically subjective approach to tempo is only one aspect of Gould's eccentricity. Most of the time, Gould's feet get nowhere near the sustain pedal, making Brahms' molto legato music sound distinctly staccato. But in the central section of the First Ballade, he hardly removes his foot from the sustain pedal, making Brahms' rich textures muddy and his sentimental phrasing syrupy. Most of the time, Gould's tone is so détaché that his fingers seem to leap off the keys as soon as they touch them. But in the closing section of the Fourth Ballade, Gould's inner voices are so sostenuto they all but dominate the outer voices. And most of the time Gould's tempos are exceedingly straight with little to no variation once the initial tempo has been set. But in the closing section of the First Ballade, Gould slows down so much that the music seems to disintegrate as he plays it. Whether one loves it or loathes it, there's no denying that Gould's Brahms is utterly unique. Produced by Samuel H. Carter and Gould himself in RCA Studio A in New York in 1982, the early digital sound here is an unlikely combination of too close and too far: too close to Gould's nearly non-stop vocalizing and too far from Gould's actual piano playing.

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