Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould reviews
Review by on 23 Sep 2010
Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont present an excellent documentary about the extraordinary and iconoclastic figure of musician Glenn Gould.
From his parents’ first expectations that he would become a singer to the influence piano teacher Alberto Guerrero had upon him, Hozer and Raymont deliver a poignant account of Gould’s artistic genius as well as of his fragile and solitary nature. The documentary is organised around Gould’s own thoughts and friends’ recollections of his professional and private moments, released for the first time in this project.
The rarely seen footage of him and his family during his childhood and adolescence wrap his developing genius in a cozy and warm atmosphere. Yet friends’ testimonies uncover aspects of Gould’s personality and artistic philosophy that show a shadowy, though fascinating, quality to his persona.
Comments by other musicians offer an enchanting portrayal of the marvel that the first public appearances of Gould’s playing produced. Vladimir Ashkenazy reports of “…a control, a clarity of the structure of Bach’s music” in Gould’s playing as the first time that such a quality was achieved by a pianist; Leonard Bernstein felt compelled to make a speech of disagreement with Gould’s interpretation of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto prior to its execution at the Carnegie Hall in 1962.
As if using the many pieces of a puzzle, Hozer and Raymont have worked towards a meaningful rendering of a global vision of Gould’s creative stature, while conveying a very humane and genuine exposition of a man’s inner journey to understand himself.
Loreta Gandolfi
From his parents’ first expectations that he would become a singer to the influence piano teacher Alberto Guerrero had upon him, Hozer and Raymont deliver a poignant account of Gould’s artistic genius as well as of his fragile and solitary nature. The documentary is organised around Gould’s own thoughts and friends’ recollections of his professional and private moments, released for the first time in this project.
The rarely seen footage of him and his family during his childhood and adolescence wrap his developing genius in a cozy and warm atmosphere. Yet friends’ testimonies uncover aspects of Gould’s personality and artistic philosophy that show a shadowy, though fascinating, quality to his persona.
Comments by other musicians offer an enchanting portrayal of the marvel that the first public appearances of Gould’s playing produced. Vladimir Ashkenazy reports of “…a control, a clarity of the structure of Bach’s music” in Gould’s playing as the first time that such a quality was achieved by a pianist; Leonard Bernstein felt compelled to make a speech of disagreement with Gould’s interpretation of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto prior to its execution at the Carnegie Hall in 1962.
As if using the many pieces of a puzzle, Hozer and Raymont have worked towards a meaningful rendering of a global vision of Gould’s creative stature, while conveying a very humane and genuine exposition of a man’s inner journey to understand himself.
Loreta Gandolfi
Review by on 22 Sep 2010
A beautiful, moving doc &, of course, such breathtaking, awe-inspiring music
Film details
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould
DOCUMENTARIES
Director: Michèle Hozer, Peter Raymont
Canada, 2009.
108 mins.
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