This Week in Classical Music W/Randy Kinkel 11/11/18

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Gould's Marked-up Goldberg variations score up for auction; 

Film follows Musician from Homelessness to Philharmonic  

 

It’s “This Week in Classical Music”—An update on what’s happening in the Classical Music World; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Few classical recordings have as much of a cult following as  Glenn Gould’s Bach Recordings.

Gould, whose first major-label recording was of the Goldberg variations by Bach in 1955, also recorded them again more than 25 years later, in 1981. And then, just after the release of the 2nd Bach recording—He died-- at the age of 50.  Now the score he used while making that record has resurfaced, offering clues about the creative process of one of the most original pianists of the 20th century.

The heavily marked-up score — which will be offered at auction  at Bonhams in New York — shows the obsessive attention to detail Gould was famous for.

“I would call this the equivalent of a shooting script of a movie,” said the critic Tim Page, a professor of music and journalism at the University of Southern California and the editor of “The Glenn Gould Reader.” “He keeps track of which takes he likes, and how long they are.” Gould’s notes, mostly done in black felt-tip pen, are not always legible. They mostly appear to be notes he made to himself as he edited takes of the recording.

Page said that he had asked Bonhams to make a high-quality copy of the newly rediscovered score to offer to the National Arts Center in Ottawa. There, he said, “it will be available to scholars, and anyone who wants to see it.”

 

Richard Antoine White slept in abandoned buildings as an impoverished kid with an alcoholic Mother in Baltimore; Now he’s teaching, playing Tuba in the New Mexico Philharmonic, and having his story filmed.

 “The American Dream is still alive and well,” White says, “I feel honored and humbled that they wanted to do a film about me,” says  the 45 year old White.

White’s success in pursuit of that dream has been filmed in the documentary “R.A.W.” made by Baltimore filmmakers Darren Durlach and David Larson. For days, the filmmakers shadowed White in Albuquerque, where he’s principal tuba in the New Mexico Philharmonic and associate professor of tuba at the University of New Mexico.

More filming took place at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Peabody Institute of Music, Where White studied. A Teacher remembers, “He was an incredible worker. Through sheer grit, he was pushing past everyone. And he was a delightful individual throughout.”

White also finds time to give motivational talks, especially to young people struggling with studies or the pressures of the music world.

“I believe there are hundreds of Richard Whites in Baltimore, but people just don’t care,” he says. “If more people did, you’d see an amazing metamorphosis.”

For more, go to the website, KBACH dot org; be listening every week at this time for another update; follow us on facebook and  twitter; and be listening every weekday at noon for the Most wanted hour with linda Cassidy, playing your top 100 classical hits.