Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould

About this book

When Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto in 1974 he admitted that he knew only three things about Canada: It had great hockey teams a lot of wheatfields and Glenn Gould. In Wondrous Strange Kevin Bazzana vividly recaptures the life of Glenn Gould one of the most celebrated pianists of our time. Drawing on twenty years of intensive research including unrestricted access to Goulds private papers and interviews with scores of friends and colleagues many of them never interviewed before Bazzana sheds new light on such topics as Goulds family history his secretive sexual life and the mysterious problems that afflicted his hands in his later years. The author places Goulds distinctive traits--his eccentric interpretations his garish onstage demeanor his resistance to convention--against the backdrop of his religious upper middle-class Canadian childhood illuminating the influence of Goulds mother as well as the lasting impact of the only piano teacher Gould ever had. Bazzana offers a fresh appreciation of Goulds concert career--his high-profile but illness-plagued international tours his adventurous work for Canadian music festivals his musical and legal problems with Steinway & Sons. In 1964 Gould made the extraordinary decision to perform only for records radio television and film a turning point that the author examines with unprecedented thoroughness (discussing for example his far-seeing interest in new recording technology). Here too are Goulds interests away from the piano from his ambitious but failed effort to be a composer to his innovative brand of "contrapuntal radio." Richly illustrated with rare photographs Wondrous Strange is a superbly written account of one of the most memorable and accomplished musicians of our times.