Glenn Gould as conductor

[The Mad Hatter]

I hear tell that he did one or two recordings as a conductor before he died. How were they? Any significant qualities or flaws?

[Sergeant Rock]

I hear tell that he did one or two recordings as a conductor before he died. How were they? Any significant qualities or flaws?

I have two recordings he conducted: Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. I'll have to listen to Pierrot once again before I comment but I can tell you his Wagner fascinates me. It's remarkably slow...at 24:39 maybe the slowest ever recorded (compare Klemperer's 17:52 and Karajan's 1988 Idyll at 19:37).

If the character of Gould interests you, what music he loved and what he didn't, you might find this list interesting. It's what he planned to learn in order to begin a conducting career:

Beethoven Egmont, Fidelio, Coriolan, Leonore 3, Symphonies 2 and 8 and the Grosse Fuge

Schubert Symphony 5

Mendelssohn Fingal's Cave and Ruy Blas, Symphonies 3 and 4

Brahms Symphony 3, Violin Concerto, Tragic Overture, Alto Rhapsody and Schicksalslied

Strauss Oboe Concerto and Metamorphosen

Schönberg Verklärte Nacht and First Chamber Symphony

Krenek Symphonic Elegy

Bach the Four Suites, Brandenburgs, B minor Mass

Unnamed works by Handel and Gluck

[PSmith08]

I hear tell that he did one or two recordings as a conductor before he died. How were they? Any significant qualities or flaws?

I have his Siegfried-Idyll on the Sony disc of his Wagner (including a wonderful piano transcription of the Meistersinger overture) recordings. The good Sergeant is quite right: it is very, very slow. His piano transcription is only marginally faster. Karl Muck, an eminent early Wagner conductor, by contrast, got through it in 17:34. Only Celibidache comes close to Gould, at 23:47, but take that for whatever it's worth. Gould seems to want the music to almost play itself. He doesn't want to force it or make it any faster than it has to be to maintain cohesion. To that end, it's a shame he could never record Parsifal: that score would repay such an approach nicely.

It's interesting, and worth a listen. Gould, as I said, lets the music unfold in a very organic way. In that regard, he reminds me of Hans Knappertsbusch (who blazed through the Idyll by comparison); still, there is a unique sensibility with Gould. He's up to something, but he was generally slowing way down at this point in his career. I'm hesitant to pass a final judgment, simply because he died before he could establish a character as a conductor (compare Karl Böhm's 1941 Beethoven 9th to his 1981 version), but I can say that he had an idea of how he wanted to do things.

[Holden]

I have two recordings he conducted: Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. I'll have to listen to Pierrot once again before I comment but I can tell you his Wagner fascinates me. It's remarkably slow...at 24:39 maybe the slowest ever recorded (compare Klemperer's 17:52 and Karajan's 1988 Idyll at 19:37).

If the character of Gould interests you, what music he loved and what he didn't, you might find this list interesting. It's what he planned to learn in order to begin a conducting career:

Beethoven Egmont, Fidelio, Coriolan, Leonore 3, Symphonies 2 and 8 and the Grosse Fuge

Schubert Symphony 5

Mendelssohn Fingal's Cave and Ruy Blas, Symphonies 3 and 4

Brahms Symphony 3, Violin Concerto, Tragic Overture, Alto Rhapsody and Schicksalslied

Strauss Oboe Concerto and Metamorphosen

Schönberg Verklärte Nacht and First Chamber Symphony

Krenek Symphonic Elegy

Bach the Four Suites, Brandenburgs, B minor Mass

Unnamed works by Handel and Gluck

I thought that Verklate Nacht was a chamber work for string quartet? Is there a 'conductable' version?

[BachQ]

Beethoven ...... Grosse Fuge

The conductor can make or break this ........ 

[The Mad Hatter]

I thought that Verklate Nacht was a chamber work for string quartet? Is there a 'conductable' version?

It was originally for string sexted, but Schoenberg arranged it later for string orchestra.