Product Description

The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould was a child prodigy and a musical genius whose 1955 recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" catapulted him to world fame. He was also plagued by lifelong depression, was terrified of playing before live audiences, and consumed prescription drugs by the handful. He died at fifty of a massive stroke. In this acclaimed biography, the late psychiatrist Peter Ostwald-himself an accomplished violinist and longtime personal friend of Gould's-raises many questions about Gould and his music. Was his genius sponsored by eccentricity or vice versa? Do those with genius sacrifice themselves for a higher ideal while remaining personally unfulfilled? Ostwald lays bare the energy and contradiction behind Gould's brilliance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116817 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.com
Peter Ostwald, who died shortly after completing this sensitive analysis of the legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (1932-82), is one of those rare biographers equally qualified to assess his subject's artistry and psychology. Founder of the Health Program for Performing Artists, the psychiatrist-author was also Gould's friend for 20 years. Lucid prose captures Gould's formidable, unconventional virtuosity and unmasks a deeply troubled man who was uncomfortable with audiences, fearful of human contact, and able to maintain relationships only when he was in complete control. The eccentricities and the genius, as Ostwald persuasively demonstrates, were inextricably intertwined.

From Library Journal
The late writer, psychiatrist, and musician Ostwald concluded his series of performer biographies (e.g., Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness, LJ 11/1/90) with this portrait of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. Ostwald wrote from the unusual perspective of someone who was a friend of the reclusive Gould. Readers excited by this insider viewpoint may be somewhat disappointed as Ostwald's personal reminiscences taper off after his opening chapter. Still, Ostwald does present the medical aspects of Gould's life to a degree not seen in earlier biographies. And though Gould remains something of an enigma, his talent, quirkiness, and innovative musicianship emerge. Since his death in 1982, Gould has remained an influential and somewhat controversial pianist, owing in part to a recorded legacy that remains very much alive. This new biography should help maintain interest in Gould. A valuable addition for larger music collections.?James E. Ross, WLN, Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Entertainment Weekly, L.S. Klepp
Ostwald ... ponders the counterpoint of Gould's inner and outer lives--solitude and immersion, puritanism and comic impersonations, bravado and phobia. This brisk book is discerning rather than reductive, and guaranteed Freud-free.

Customer Reviews

Gould's head gets a much-needed shrink
In this book, the author, Peter Ostwald, sometimes enjoyed playing classical music as an amateur musician but, perhaps more importantly, he was also a psychiatrist. Ostwald completed this work just before he died of cancer. He shared a casual relationship (he considered it a friendship) with Gould over a window of several years and his (Ostwald's) angle on the book is sort of a psychoanalytical one.

I carried this book on my reading list for a couple of years and when the price dropped on a used copy I ordered it. Having now finished reading it, I think a better title might have been, "My Friend, Glenn Gould, and Our Limited, One-Sided Relationship" -- a dichotomy, and not all that catchy, but perhaps more accurate.

Glenn Gould, (born "Glenn Herbert Gold" on September 25, 1932), was an eccentric, internationally-renowned Canadian pianist. He was also involved in radio and film but it was piano playing that made him famous. There's a great deal which can be said, (and WAS said, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, by Ostwald), about Gould: hypochondriac, prescription drug abuser, animal rights activist, hermit, brilliant classical pianist, part-time composer, and self-centered egomaniac... there's a great deal more to the list but this is a fair summary. Famed conductor, Karel Ancerl, once referred to Glenn Gould as a "nut" and maybe that's the most spot-on summary of all.

In any case, Gould, a child prodigy, was also highly opinionated about music. He was a huge fan of J.S. Bach and Gould's recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" (first recorded in 1955) actually launched this very talented pianist to world stardom. However, he generally didn't like the works of Romantic Period composers.

Gould particularly disliked the compositions of Robert Schumann although, strangely, he once recorded Schumann's "Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, opus 47" along with accompaniment by musicians of the Juilliard School. I own this recording and the liner notes are clear in corroborating the book's comments on two issues: Gould didn't like Schumann, and; subsequent to this recording experience, the Juilliard people weren't very keen on Gould either. The latter situation was clearly due to Gould's "Lone Wolf," domineering approach to group projects because he had to be the center of attention.

Gould could also never tolerate any sort of criticism, either personal or professional. When friends pointed out any item of deficiency, Gould immediately dropped them from his list of contacts. This is essentially what happened in the case of the author here, Ostwald.

Gould's egocentric personality was likely the least of his numerous personal problems. He harbored a phobia of audiences and, for that reason, abhorred live concerts which he eventually gave up altogether at age 31! He was a great enthusiast and advocate of new recording technology and proved himself a perfectionist, doing great numbers of "takes" on tape and much subsequent review and tweaking of his recordings before he would allow their release to the public on albums.

Gould had "issues" with the great pianist, Vladimir Horowitz. From Ostwald's book: "...(Gould) even made the outlandish claim that he once showed the RCA Victor technicians in New York how to repair a Horowitz tape by inserting a measure played by Gould." That statement pretty much says it all about Gould's ego, as well as his ethics.

Gould died at age 50 in 1982 of a stroke. He had just gotten re-started in recording piano works, (after trouble in controlling his hands, arms, and shoulders), and was even doing a little conducting, before his premature death put the skids to similar future projects which he had planned.

Ostwald's book itself contains a awful lot about Ostwald. Even though the experiences of the days he spent with Gould provide us some insight as to the latter's idiosyncrasies, Gould himself probably did not regard these days in particular as very significant ones. Ostwald was an interesting personality too but, here, I felt the need for more focus on what experiences were more of a big deal to Gould, and the details of THOSE days.

To summarize, this is a fair biography of Gould's life, (it read quite fluidly), from his birth to his death, but there's also probably a better one out there somewhere. I should also add that an especially good point about this biography is the great number of "Gould photos" which Ostwald has included.

A solid start, but loses momentum
With a book titled "The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius" written by a psychologist/friend of the subject, I was expecting to learn a great deal about the psychology behind Glenn Gould's eccentricities, drug addictions and unusual career decisions. Instead, in the introduction to the book, the author discloses that he never treated Glenn professionally, and so he relies on testimony from others to delve into the subject.

The author spends a great deal of time on Glenn's early years. There is fascinating information about Glenn's youth, including his mother's ambitions (and ultimate success) in raising a prodigy pianist. The author's descriptions of his own encounters with Gould are also extremely enlightening.

As the book progresses, however, it becomes more of a professional biography, not much more than a list of what pieces Glenn performed/recorded and when. This information is readily available by reading CD liner notes, or perusing the CBC catalogue of Gould recordings. Even though the chapters are longer in the second half of the book, the amount of time spent on Glenn's middle and later years forms only about 40 out of 330 pages. The last three chapters, in fact, are titled "Approaching Middle Age," "The Last Years" and "A Fatal Stroke.

Unfortunately the decline of the book is in line with the author's own decline in health. If he had more time on this earth perhaps the second half of the book would be as engrossing as the first.

THE ubiquitous comment about GG --- "eccentric" --- but what of the why of it!
My difficulty with books on Glenn Gould is that there always seems to be two extremes so to speak: he was, to put it in colloquial parlance, either a "flake" ==or== that virtually everything he did was "understandable and even pardonable from the point of view of a genius." Question is, where is the middle-ground assessment of the man although it seems to be that every write-up on Gould from squib to article to hefty tome duly contains the word "eccentric" and essentially as a given from the get-go!

Well, I incline towards Gould as highly eccentric yet there are those who would say that absent the piano, the word 'eccentric' could then be down-graded, as it were, to in fact an all around flake! He 'was' different, to be sure, and had no difficulty literally denigrating those great composers which he personally didn't relish as they didn't quite measure up to the Gould 'standard' [whatever that was!] .. like Mozart and Beethoven [Ohh yes!] and the Gould given 'reasons' for same. Even with the Bach "Goldberg Variations" hoopla, folks tend to forget that these renderings were as 'Gould' felt they should be and hence the standing joke, "Bach: As written by Glenn Gould."

So too, Glenn could indeed be "very personable" at least up until the time the other person had an opposing view! That could easily set the stage for a rather rapid write-off ... by Glenn Gould. You know, those types where an opposing view no matter how diplomatically rendered is taken not as a simple disagreement or indeed one's prerogative to hold an opposite opinion for that matter but viewed as a literal personal 'insult' and de facto relegated forthwith as an 'uninformed speculation' at the very least. In effect, one had to continually walk on egg shells with Glenn Gould and many did while concurrently providing social crutches for Gould's bahavior and demeanor in the process or making mini eye-roll references to ad hoc bromides of "genius is often like that." Is it now? By whose definition?

It seemed that those who remained on Glenn's "good list" so to speak were those who did not question his findings or revelations or pronouncements. Especially those dealing with musical issues. Even ol' Lenny [Bernstein], not one himself to embrace counter-arguendo with open arms either, felt so flustered by Gould he had to address the audience and reinforce that there were 'major differences of view' on the piece to be performed between conductor and interpreter. Remember that one? The go-alongs, shall we say, endured. Phone contact inclusive. You know, one "goes along to get along" kind of thing. Unfortunately, those not possessing a 'go along to get along' type of personality or demeanor themselves nor in any way dependent on Gould's good graces or his moods can find it particularly hard slogging. Or simply their own nature at play, so to speak, in refusing on principle to 'go along to get along' not to mention the egg-shell tolerations with other personalities. No matter who they are!

Gould himself admitted [you know, in the car scene as Glenn is driving along and pontificating about his philosophy in the DVD] to that veritable embracement and indeed preference of the 'cloud over his head' but could not understand when the others around him tended to pass on the perpetual rain. Or the fog. Or the storms. Or, indeed, the 'wind' [!] as it were.

What's that? Sure, I could live with the GG printed message handed to folks in lieu of not shaking their hand [cough-cough] or the viewer getting a frown for not embracing the televised Gould 'personas' [with German accent or New York City 'cabby' accent or wigs and metal detectors a la mode] as seemingly akin to the Second Coming in terms of their "instructional value" or even the multi-voiced up North jumble thing or Gould by way of Ed Norton-like "Don't touch me, nurse, I'm sterile!" back-off mannerisms but when one does their own thing 'totally' with 'variations' of one's own making as allegedly de facto surpassing that of the original creator [read: composer] while concurrently knocking the others as mere dabblers or "carnival music composers" or "dog barkers" , well, I'm not so sure where 'genius' gives way to 'flake' or is it, as some suggest, a mixture of the two! Question is, what about the percentages of each one independently! Ahhhh! How much alleged genius ... how much bottom line flake!

It's not a question of 'disliking' Glenn Gould by any means as it is challenging some of his etched in stone opinions which some seemingly relegate to Ex Cathedra mongering or the Burning Bush itself since it comes from Glenn "I detest audiences" Gould and hence that becomes the last word. Not necessarily. Although Glenn would no doubt and vociferously have ... disagreed. Good! That, I'll defend! But allow the same privilege for the other person sans the blow-off! Or the famous Gould temper tantrum. Including certain chamber music types and assorted Gould write-offs for the 'sin' of non compliance .. to that of Glenn Gould. Peter Ostwald inclusive.

Doc Tony