Topic: Glenn Gould's piano
I love Bach's music and in particular, Glenn Gould's rendition of it on the modern piano.
He seemed always to look for a harpsichord-like sound but still allowing the whole range of dynamics and the resulting contrapuntal clarity that he was famous for.
That's why he tortured to death his trusty CD318 Steinway into giving him what he wanted.
After the death of the instrument, he recorded his famous 1981 version of the Goldberg Variations on a Yamaha which, it seems, gave him what he wanted.
Now, I like that version very much and although I also have the 1955 one, I prefer the most recent, one of the reason being of course the much greater recording clarity.
But then, I recently found by accident that the 1955 interpretation has been recreated in 2007 on a Yamaha Disklavier system.
Here is the reference : http://www.zenph.com/sept25.html
Listening to the mp3 example files, I can't help to think that although it sounds like Gould's playing (without humming), he seems to be playing on Murray Perahia's piano!
So, I unleashed the power of pianoteq to try to emulate the sound of the piano used in the 1981 recording by playing the aria and the first variations or two.
The result is the GG.fxp which I just uploaded.
Now this fxp is pretty unusable on the upper two octaves, but then Bach doesn't use them.
I also stretched the dynamics to try to accomodate the Gouldian range without any pedal.
It was monitored with Grado SR80 headphones.
Zenph Studios didn't release the midi files of their effort, but while looking for it, I stumbled on a piano competition site where all contestants are recorded on Disklaviers.
Here is that site : http://www.piano-e-competition.com/ecom...efault.asp
The fun part is they archived all the past competitions in midi format.
Although the real Yamaha format is an extension of the standard, these files are readable and interesting to listen to using your favorite preset, since for example a lot of subtle pedalling is dutifully recorded and well recreated by pianoteq.
This brings to mind the close relationship that the instrument used and the piece played can have, a bit in my mind like the unique effect a particular human voice has when singing.
Gould would have loved pianoteq!