Wondrous Strange – The Life and Art of Glenn Gould - Hardcover

Bazzana, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300103743 ISBN 13: 9780300103748

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In this absorbing and entertaining biography, Kevin Bazzana distils twenty years' research on Glenn Gould's celebrated life as a pianist, writer, broadcaster, and composer. Looking beyond the legend of the self-taught and emotionally damaged recluse who burst onto the international musical scene in the mid-1950s but was dead at fifty, he presents a balanced portrait of a complex figure who, while uniquely gifted and genuinely eccentric, was also the product of his upbringing and surroundings. Bazzana explores the lasting effects on Gould of his sheltered middle-class Toronto upbringing, his unusual musical education, his brief but colourful concert career and his relations with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Columbia Records and Steinway and Sons. Drawing on candid recollections by Gould's friends and colleagues as well as newly available private papers, he provides fresh insights into Gould's famous eccentricities, his sometimes bizarre stage manner, his highly selective repertoire, his control mania, his private and sexual life, his hypochondria, and his abrupt retirement from concert performance to communicate solely through recorded performance and print.

About this title

Review:

'.....at 528 pages this exemplary book is not one syllable too long' -- Piano Magazine, March 1 2005

'...[a] superb biography...brilliantly conveying [Gould's] weird idealism, fears and humour... Tender, intimate and measured, Bazzana does his subject justice.' -- Sarah Castleton, The Observer, 12th February 2006

'...a balanced portrait of a famously unbalanced pianist' -- The Mail on Sunday

'...a serious critique, showing that Gould's reputation as a great pianist has little to do with the razzmatazz.' -- Sunday Telegraph, March 5 2006

'...beautifully produced, rigorously researched, detailed account of the Canadian's life and career...' -- Classic FM - The Magazine, August 2004

'It is difficult to imagine a more absorbing, lively or honest book' -- Classical Music Magazine

'Kevin Bazzana is excellent...admirably straightforward' -- The Daily Telegraph

'Kudos to Bazzana...the first biography to recognise and describe the central influence in the subject's life' -- The Canada Post

'On Gould the man, Bazzana is scrupulously fair and open-minded' -- The Sunday Telegraph

‘Kevin Bazzana is excellent...admirably straightforward’ -- Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph, 1 May 2004

About the Author:

Kevin Bazzana has a PhD in Music History and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the editor of Glenn Gould magazine and has served as editor of The Beethoven Journal. His previous book, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work (1997) was described as 'an outstandingly original book' and 'a model of clarity'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0300103743
• ISBN 13: 9780300103748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 536