Episode
See Hear Podcast Episode 128 - Interview with Francois Girard about "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould"
- Podcast
- See Hear
- Published
- Jun 23, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3984
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/see-hear-170344/episodes/see-hear-podcast-episode-128-interview-with-francois-girard-about-thirty-two-short-films-about-glenn-gould/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/see-hear-170344/see-hear-podcast-episode-128-interview-with-francois-girard-about-thirty-two-short-films-about-glenn-gould.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
There’s a moment in Mel Brooks’ “History of the World Part 1” where we’re told that shortly after the first artists came the first art critics…..I’ll leave you to determine what happens…. The music world is certainly not short of people with opinions in regards to others’ ability to perform and provide nuance to the work they present for us as music lovers to listen to. In the classical world, interpretation of the canon of baroque, classical, romantic and modernist music can be a mystery to some of us who are not classically trained musicians. There’s no shortage of classical soloists who’ve captured the wider public’s imagination, yet have their critics as well. Welcome to episode 128 of See Hear Podcast. Glenn Gould is regarded as one of the great pianists of the 20th century, known in particular for his love of and heavy focus on the composition of J.S. Bach. However, he wasn’t unanimously revered. Pianist Alfred Brendel was vocally not a fan. Even Leonard Bernstein who did love Gould’s approach covered himself before a TV broadcast of a Brahms piano concerto by saying Gould’s approach was not going to be for everybody. Therein lies the heart of the matter – when you depart from an accepted orthodox style of playing of the canon, you’re going to upset people. Glenn Gould upset some people. BUT….the reason he is still being talked about was for what he DID, not what he didn’t do. He’s most famous for his first and last released recordings, Bach’s Goldberg Variations (1955 and 1981). Even there his recordings are wildly different, and the latter upset some who championed the earlier recording. He’s also remembered for his intellect and could discuss may other issues outside of music – something he did on radio and TV specials. In 1993, film director Francois Girard r…