Pretty Piece

Here's a pretty piece on Glenn Gould which ends:

In the last interview Gould gave — republished in The Glenn Gould Reader — he comprehensively rubbished the early Romantic repertoire. "I have always felt that the whole centre core of the piano repertoire is a colossal waste of time ... This generalization includes Chopin, Liszt, Schumann ... I don't think any of the early Romantic composers knew how to write for the piano ... The music of that era is full of empty theatrical gestures, full of exhibitionism, and it has a worldly, hedonistic quality that simply turns me off."

Yes, that negates just about everything poor old [pianist, Alfred] Brendel stands for. But for others, it represents the most bracing provocation from the ultimate aesthete. Long live Glenn Gould; long may he continue to provoke.

To all of which I can only say, Amen!