Glenn Gould - The Alchemist

Being a huge GG fan I love all things "Gouldian". This is a great addition to my collection of GG DVDS because itfocuses more on the performance. There is certainly plenty of witty interviews, but it is refreshing to listen to entire selections. A very inspiring movie.

It have a plenty range of Glould's legacy. Personally I hate the contemporary music, honestly I bought it because it have one interpretation of the magestic Partita No.6 in E minor. It have a rear romatic influence, and definitly it don't have the same perfection with the greatest baroque influence that Glenn leave us in the one recorded in 1957. Nonetheless you will see the great personality of Glenn and its lively interpretation.

I am a Gould fanatic and find him to be a genius both on the piano and in his views on music and other things. So, I loved it. Others may not - depends on your views of Gould. Of course, if you are reading this review you are likely a Gould fan - give it a whirl.

Monsaingeon.has provided us with a glimpse into the mind of Glenn Gould. The conversations on this DVD are so fascinating! And then you get to enjoy Gould's masteful playing. If you want to know Glenn Gould in a deeper way then you must buy this!

I bought 2 copies , one for me and one for my relatives in Alaska, who are also fans of Glenn Gould- we all loved it! Anyone who enjoys the music of Glenn Gould will want this dvd! Bill

I expected more new episodes but almost of all were the same which we could see on the Yu-tube and there are narrated onlyin French with English subtitle is not good!

This is a rather long DVD with a running time of 157 min. Roughly we have 1/3 of the time with Gould on the piano and the rest are just chats/talks. Whether the chats are interesting depend on how we look at them. On this occasion, Gould is more polite and more pleasing in the sense that he was more aware of the camera and the viewers behind the camera. On the other hand, he is not as candid as he was on Goldberg.In this DVD, we also have a director. So the photography is not as dull as Goldberg and to a certain extent quite artistic, especially when he is on the piano. One of the most appealing sights of this DVD would be his fingerworks as filmed right above his hands: it looks as though the ten fingers were ten little dancers (with Horowitz, we have ten horses racing together).Gould had a way of making the piano sounds more like harpsichord than a modern piano, and that supposedly had something to do with the position he sat himself before the piano making his arms so low. The recording session of the English Suite, other than Gibbons, is one of the best that this DVD has to offer, but that is only an excerpt showing instead what he was seeking in his recording. Fortunately, we have a whole piece of Partita #6, a piece that some would regard as less appealing than his English Suite.As to his chats, for those other than Gould's fans, they would rather the director/producer edite it or trim it making it more compact. But for Gould fans, they sure would long for more whatever they may be. Fortunately, we have a choice: we can select the music programme instead of having to undergo all the chats everytime before we have the music.The "bonus" hasn't any substance at all. Such kind of trial started in the 1930s when a piano teacher tried to film famous pianists' hands to be replayed in normal and slow actions to unveil the "secret" of piano playing in order "to save years of hard practice": a most futile attempt.

This DVD is a great work of art. Here you are brought into incredible performances of Bach, Skriabin, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and more. Even if you are not so familiar with 20th century music, you should get this and listen how also atonality can be incredibly musical and full of emotions. Very few artists can do that with this repertoire and (IMHO) they all owed it to Gould. Musical heaven at its peak, nothing else. The conversations are not too long and are some of the most inspiring music talks I have listen to in my 35 years of making music as a professional musician and a composer. Enjoy!

This is so far the best film made about Glenn Gould. There are no annoying cleaver talks by various snobs which spoiled so many of previous documentaries. This is the documentary in a true sense, because it is filled with many footages in which Gould plays works of various composers he loved best (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bach, Byrd, Gibbons, Scriabin, Wagner) and with interviews, Gould sharing captivating insight into their music.To me the highlight of this documentary is the part two 'The Alchemist' in which Gould reveals facinating studio recording process and part three in which he comments on 2nd Viennese School and the composers.The documentary concludes with wonderful complete performance of Bach's 6th Partita filmed in 1974 Toronto.Why can't other labels produce this sort of straight forward ducumentary on GG, as there are still so many precious visual records of this extraordinary artist hidden decaying in archives. Just show them as they are, without diluting them with small talks by other people!

Objectively.If you care about the music coming out of the speakers, then this scores highly: an excellent performance of the Berg sonata, for example.If you are enchanted by Gould the character, then this scores highly. He clearly loves the sound of his own voice and the mechanics of his own arguments. And the interviewer lets him talk.If you don't like Gould's eccentricity, his squeaky folding chair and consequently bizarre posture, his commitment to editing in the studio (which you see in action), then stay away.Personally.I loved it from the moment he walked in the door at the beginning.

Stunning but I am a Glenn Gould fan so would not expect less

Ich habe viele CDs von Glenn Goulds Einspielungen, habe aber seine aktive Zeit nicht als Erwachsener erlebt und so ist diese DVD-Veröffentlichung mit einer Mischung aus Klaviermusik und Interview eine schöne Art Retrospektive auf den wohl populärsten Pianisten aller Zeiten. Es gibt Musik von Schoenberg, Gibbons und natürlich von Bach, der gesamte Film ist 1974 entstanden, also zu einer Zeit, als sich Gould schon lange von der Bühne verabschiedet hatte, da er lieber im Studio arbeitete. Besonders das Interview mit Bruno Monsaingeon ist von grossem Interesse, was ich noch gerne gehabt hätte, wären Ausschnitte aus früheren Konzerten und Interviews, bin aber gar nicht sicher, ob es da so vieles gibt, denn Gould war einfach eher etwas zurückhaltender und mochte nicht allzu viel Wirbel um seine Person. Für Fans ist diese DVD sicherlich ein Goldstück, wer allerdings lieber nur die Musik hören möchte,ist mit den vielen CD-Veröffentlichungen besser bedient. Für die, die mehr über den Pianisten wissen wollen, ist auch das Buch "Glenn Gould - Leben und Werk" von Michael Stegemann zu empfehlen!

Parlare di Gould è come parlare di una entità astratta, tanta è la qualità ed il livello tecnico sprigionato, unitamente allo spessore artistico, da questo Maestro assoluto dello strumento "in bianco e nero"...Penso che tutti gli amanti di questo geniaccio debbano assolutamente possedere una copia di questo documento visivo per rendersi ulteriormente conto di cosa voglia veramente significare "possedere - in toto - uno strumento musicale"...