Life and Times presents an insightful biography
of the multi-faceted Glenn Gould, the man and the musician
- eccentric loner, genius, jokester, broadcaster, documentary
producer and acclaimed pianist.
Gould was born in Toronto in 1932, the only son of an older
mother who was very protective. She punished her music-loving
son by not allowing him to play the piano if he played too
many wrong notes. But Gould wanted to play music his
own way. His first recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations,
a difficult piece that is usually played on the harpsichord,
became an international best-seller, the first of many.
Gould's behaviour was considered by many to be eccentric.
He wore gloves and a coat in warm weather. He suffered
chronic stage fright and would sit very low in a chair, humming
and singing as he played. Gould stopped performing in
public when he was only 32. "I detest audiences.I think
they are a force of evil," he said.
Later in life when recording his music and radio documentaries,
he started working only at night. "I tend to follow
a very nocturnal existence," he explained, "My moods are inversely
related to the clarity of the sky on any given day.
As a matter of fact, my private motto has always been, behind
every silver lining, there's a cloud." Towards the end
of his life, Gould obsessively catalogued his every health
symptom. He stopped eating properly, rarely slept and
died of a stroke when he was only 50-years-old.
The documentary includes remarkable archival footage of Gould
performing, goofing around, working in his recording studio,
and being interviewed. Viewers hear from Andrew Kazdin,
Gould's longtime record producer at Columbia, Ray Roberts,
one of his oldest friends and Lorne Tulk, the technician who
worked with him through many nights.
Original Air Date - March 13, 1998
Links
The
Official Glenn Gould Web site
Glenn
Gould: CBC Archives
(Note: CBC does not endorse the content of external
sites)
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