Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano
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“When Gould was paired with the right composer…he could make you wonder if he was altogether human. And reading Hafner on Gould is sometimes as much fun as listening to him play. And that’s saying a lot.”—Newsweek Hugely talented and famously eccentric, pianist Glenn Gould fought a running battle with a long list of lessthan- perfect pianos. A Romance on Three Legs is the story of a love that changed Gould’s life: his partnership with the Steinway CD 318, a piano whose peculiar action and temperament ushered Gould closer than ever to interpretive perfection. Katie Hafner weaves the compelling tale of Gould, his favorite piano, and the men who worked on it, revealing new details and nuances in the work and mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists. Publishers Weekly This evocative, detailed account of the compulsive search for a sensitive, highly responsive concert piano by Canadian musical wunderkind Glenn Gould combines the parallel histories of one of the most controversial and brilliant pianists of the last century and the incredible keyboard instrument on which he played for some of his most important recordings. Hafner, a New York Timescorrespondent, presents a fascinating biography of Gould, who was known for his quirks, including his wearing of winter gear on summer days, his donning of fingerless gloves while playing, his manic fear of germs and hand shaking. The book will greatly appeal to those intrigued by the history of the influential German-bred Steinway piano company, but it is the close interaction of Gould and Charles Verne Edquist, the nearly blind piano tuner, with a Steinway CD 318 concert piano, that lift the book above the usual biography. This book will aid the reader to fully appreciate Gould's creative work in interpreting the early sonatas of Mozart and his majestic rendition of the Goldberg Variations. (June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Prologue: Ottawa, 1983 11 Toronto 92 Saskatchewan 313 Astoria 574 The Trouble with Pianos 835 Eaton's 1136 A Romance on Three Legs 1297 CD 318 in the Studio 1518 Broken Piano 1679 Making Do 17710 The Defection 20711 Afterlife 225Acknowledgments 233Notes 243Index 251
