Glenn Gould: Remembering a master storyteller of music and media

At the age of 22, Glenn Gould burst onto the global music scene – an instant star, thanks to his virtuoso recording of a then-obscure Bach work, “The Goldberg Variations.” And from the beginning, Gould was not just a musician, but a character who might have stepped from the pages of a novel – cheerfully eccentric, an admitted hypochondriac who wore scarves in the summertime, and a loner who preferred to sleep during the day and work through the night.

Doing things differently seemed to make life more interesting for Gould’s restless mind. He chose an often-surprising repertoire – and, after a relatively short touring career, gave up concerts altogether in 1964, an extraordinary decision that placed him on an almost singular path among classical artists. He invented a fascinating and challenging form of radio documentary, which he called contrapuntal radio, and produced numerous programs for the CBC in this format. He won four Grammy Awards during his lifetime, composed his own string quartet, and wrote dozens of essays.

In 1982, not long after recording a widely praised re-interpretation of “The Goldberg Variations” – and just two days past his 50th birthday – Gould suffered a devastating stroke. He died about a week later, on October 4th. It was the end of singular life, career and story.

In this special edition of The Story Talks Back, Gould’s friend and collaborator, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page, talks to us about Gould as story and storyteller – recalling his face-to-face interview with Gould just weeks before the pianist’s death, as well as their hours-long phone conversations, Gould’s prescient desire to give listeners more control in the creative process, and much more. 

Page is the editor of The Glenn Gould Reader, an indispensable collection of the pianist’s written work, and the author of Parallel Play. He has also edited an anthology of the great critic Virgil Thomson and published a biography of the New York novelist Dawn Powell, almost single-handedly reviving interest in her work. 

Page is a dean among classical music critics, with notable stints at The Soho Weekly News, Newsday, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, where he won the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 1997. He is an Emeritus Professor of Musicology at the University of Southern California and continues to write about music  and culture for The Washington Post and other publications.

Photo of Gould courtesy of Sony Classical.

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