Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein)

"'You are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms D minor Concerto,' Bernstein began, 'a performance distinctly different from any I’ve ever heard, or even dreamt of for that matter, in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms’s dynamic indications.' Bernstein then spoke about collaboration. Usually, a conductor and a soloist with interpretive discrepancies manage to 'get together by persuasion or charm or even threats to achieve a unified performance,' he said. But in this case the disagreements were so great, he explained, that he had to make clear he was deferring to Gould. He emphasized, though, that there 'are moments in Mr. Gould’s performance that emerge with astonishing freshness and conviction.' (When you hear those comments today — in the film or on the Sony live recording — Bernstein comes across as tactful and sincere.)" (Anthony Tommasini, "For Glenn Gould, Form Followed Fingers," New York Times, 9/26/10)

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