Gould/Beethoven Sonata No.6 in F major, Op.10 No 2

Описание: For a man who disliked travelling 1958 must have been a terrible year. At the end of January Gould went from Philadelphia to New Orleans and Buffalo in a 2 week span; in February and March he went to Tacoma and San Francisco, then all the way back east to Boston and New York. That was only the United States part of the schedule. In Canada he gave concerts in Kingston, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Vancouver in February before returning to Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto in the springtime. He then had to return to Vanvouver for three concerts in July. And that's not all: from August to November he went overseas -Europe first (Salzburg, Brussels, Stockholm, Berlin, Wiesbaden, Florence and Rome) and to Israël in November and December (four different locations + six concerts). Returning to North America he had two concerts in Detroit on December 26 and 27. No wonder he wanted to give up public concertizing!
An interesting thing happened in February of that year. For a recital given in Kingston, Ontario on February 12 (repeated in Winnipeg five days later) Gould played Bach (Goldberg), Mozart (K.330) and a Beethoven Sonata. It was the one in F Major, op.10 no 2 and that was the only time he performed it, either live or on tape. Six years later, after his last public concert in Los Angeles he would record it for Columbia. It was one of eight recording sessions in New York during 1964. Seven of those sessions were devoted to Schoenberg. The other one was for recording the three sonatas of op.10.
Glenn Gould always maintened that the early period of Beethoven's output was his best one. Therefore, he truly enjoyed the F major Sonata. And it shows. You can sense the obvious pleasure he must have felt playing it. The tempo is brisk, full of energy, and the whole sonata lasts just a little over ten minutes. Of course Gould took some liberties with Beethoven's markings, especially in the second movement. But overall it is pure joy.

I. Allegro 4'21"
II. Allegretto 4'00"
III. Presto 2'04"