GLENN GOULD ON BEETHOVEN

A Conversation with Humphrey Burton

In the age of modern recording we have heard some very excellent classical pianists, and none has been greater than, and certainly none more versatile than, Glenn Gould. Born in Toronto in 1932, he lived only fifty years, and yet left a very large body of recordings that covers composers as diverse as Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and even Arnold Schoenberg. He recorded both as a solo artist and with orchestras, eventually choosing to concentrate on recording over giving concerts. His repertoire was unusually extensive, larger than that of almost any classical musician ever. From the music of J.S. Bach alone, in addition to many famous concertos and other works, he recorded all forty-eight Preludes and Fugues in both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier, two complete recordings of the Goldberg Variations, and, on the organ, the entire Art of the Fugue having composed his own ending of the eighteenth movement (Contrapunctus XVIII) that Bach had left unfinished at the time of his death. In the interviews in the two videos below, he discusses the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven with Sir Humphrey Burton, an English classical music television presenter, broadcaster, director, producer, impresario, lecturer and biographer of musicians. These were from a television program in Canada in 1966.