Slogging Through Starred Items

If you couldn’t tell, I slogged through a number of my starred items in my google reader last night, some of the items going back years now (weird). Loved this Sounds & Fury post regarding Glenn Gould’s grotesque talent:

And that is that no matter what interior horizontal line I chose to isolate for attention in that way at any point in the performance, and no matter how dense or complex the surrounding counterpoint, that line was not only articulated perfectly and at the proper dynamic, but played with such perfect effortlessness it was as if it were being played by a pianist who had nothing else to do with his fingers but play that single line alone.

Read the rest here. I’ve been spending some time with the 1981 Goldberg Variations over the past few months and agree. That said, how much of that effortlessness stems from the compositions themselves? The Gould recording of GV from the 50s, while different, still incites a similar feelings of WONDER. And that is probably my favorite part about Bach’s keyboard work: it’s confusing.