Glenn Gould: a wilfully idiotic genius?
格伦·古尔德：一位固执且愚蠢的天才？
By:Tom service
It's 30 years since the death of Glenn Gould, but the pianist still provokes strong reactions. So how do today's top players assess his legacy?It still sounds like nothing you've ever heard, however many times you listen to it: Glenn Gould's first recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, made in 1955, has an energy, an intensity and a sheer joy that is as irresistible today as it was when astonished record-buyers first heard it nearly 60 years ago.
格伦·古尔德已经过世三十年了，但是，这位钢琴家仍引起强烈反响。那么，今天的音乐名家都是如何评价古尔德的作品呢？不管你听了多少遍古尔德1955年第一次录制的《巴赫：哥德堡奏鸣曲》，都会感到有一种力量吸引着你，有种纯粹的愉悦感，就像60年前，人们第一次聆听这张唱片时，那样倍受震惊，无法抗拒。
 It's no surprise that this record launched the myth of Gould as much as it signalled the start of his career, but no one could have predicted the effect this young Canadian pianist would have on music.Lauded the world over – his tour to Russia in 1957 is still remembered fondly by Vladimir Ashkenazy and by everyone else who packed out the concert halls to hear him – Gould none the less seemed to steadily retreat from public view.
这张唱片也让古尔德成为音乐神话，开启了他的传奇音乐生涯，也就不足为奇了。但是，无人能预知这位年轻加拿大钢琴家对音乐产生什么影响。古尔德当时享誉全球，1957年的俄罗斯巡演，仍被阿什肯纳齐和每一个为聆听过现场演奏的任所铭记。尽管如此，古尔德依然坚定地退公众视野。
He gave his last concert in 1964, confining himself to the recording studio for the rest of his short life.One of his final recordings was a second, markedly slower and more deliberate version of the Goldbergs in 1981. His ideas on editing were decades ahead of their time: he dreamed of a true democracy of recordings, when listeners would be able to edit their own versions of tracks, as we can now all do at the click of a mouse.
1964年，古尔德开了他最后一次音乐会，他短暂人生在录音室里度过。古尔德最后录的几张唱片里，他于1981年录的第二版哥德堡变奏曲，这版节奏缓慢，更富思想性。古尔德在编辑上的想法超越了他那个时代几十年：他梦想实现唱片的真正民主化，听众可以剪辑自己的音轨版本，就想我们现在用鼠标点击一下就能完成一样。
He was also an eccentric hypochondriac, whose obsessive personality traits (he wore an overcoat and gloves no matter the temperature, and insisted on playing on the same ancient, battered chair) were exacerbated in his final years by cocktails of antidepressants and anxiety-suppressing pills that were, ironically, more harmful to him than helpful.He died shortly after his 50th birthday, on 4 October 1982. Yet that was just the start of the Gould myth. The apparent weirdness of this reclusive genius has only added to the mystique as much as the iconoclasm of the recordings – his brilliant Bach, for sure, but also his wilfully idiotic Mozart and tortuous Beethoven.
古尔德是个古怪的疑病症患者，他晚年时，强迫症更为严重（不管多热，他都穿外套，戴手套，坚持坐在老旧的椅子上弹琴）。他喝抗抑郁鸡尾酒，服用抗焦虑药物，对他健康不仅没起到帮助作用，反而害了他，实在是讽刺。 1982年10月4日，古尔德过完五十岁大寿后不久，便与世长辞。然而，这只是古尔德传奇一生的开始。这个与世隔绝的天才让人捉摸不透，让其神秘感倍增，以及一改传统风格的录音——他弹的巴赫简直棒极了，莫扎特的狂妄，贝多芬的曲折，都表现得淋漓尽致。
But underneath the eccentric control-freakery was a much more normal person than has often been portrayed. He was a loner, certainly, but Gould was also one of the funniest and most playful musicians there has ever been, he was an irrepressible and essential thinker on music, and his records and radio documentaries are fuelled by a ceaseless curiosity about the world and music's place in it.In what would have been his 80th year, we asked leading pianists what Gould means to them. As you'll discover, he's still a controversial figure.
在古怪的控制欲背后，古尔德比所描绘出来的要正常的多。他是我所见过的最有趣、最会玩的音乐家了，他对音乐的思考总是自发流露出来，对世界葆有无尽的好奇下，录制了唱片和广播节目。在他八十岁诞辰之际，我们邀请了几位颇具影响力的钢琴家来谈谈古尔德对他们的影响。你会发现，古尔德仍然是个备受争议的人物。 
Angela Hewitt
安吉拉·休伊特
Glenn Gould was an unavoidable presence when I was growing up in Ottowa. He was already a sort of legend, although not the kind of myth he has become since his death. When I was four or five, his programmes would be on CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Company) on a Sunday night. I remember running into my parents' room and seeing this person with the piano up his nose! At that age, I couldn't understand what he was doing – and even at an older age, it was difficult.
我在渥太华长大的时候，古尔德就，尽管不像他过世后那样风靡，但他那时已算得上是传奇人物了。我四五岁的时候，CBC（加拿大广播公司）周日晚上就会播他的节目。我记得当时自己跑到父母房间，看到古尔德竟然用鼻子弹钢琴！那时候，我还不知道他当时在干什么——待我年龄大了之后，才知道这样弹琴是很难的。
We bought his recordings whenever a new LP came out. I remember his Brahms, his Strauss, and of course his Bach. We would listen to his Bach discs – my parents were musicians too – and my dad would say: "That's a ridiculous tempo. What's he playing it like that for?" (By and large, if it was a slow piece, he would play it too fast, and vice versa.) But there was always something to admire. He was a wonderful pianist, and the way he played Bach was a sensation at the time. It was totally fearless, there's a ferocity, a youthful exuberance and energy in his playing. But I have never imitated him. 
每次古尔德新唱片黑胶版一出，我们就买了。我仍记得他弹的勃拉姆斯、施特劳斯，当然还有巴赫的作品。我父母也是音乐家——我爸说：“古尔德弹的速度很怪啊，他为什么这样表现呢？”（总的来说，如果原作速度满，他会弹得很快；如果原作速度快，他就会慢下来。）但总是有值得欣赏之处，他是个出色的钢琴家，他演奏的巴赫轰动一时。他的琴声里，有一种无所畏惧、攻势猛烈、青春洋溢、活力无限。
I never wanted to come out like a bad copy of Glenn Gould. I first played the Goldberg Variations when I was 16. I remember going to the library and listening to Gould's recording, the famous 1955 one. I only listened to it once, though, and I recorded the Well-Tempered Clavier without even listening to his version. The thing with Gould is that there are wonderful and horrible things. You wonder why he played Mozart the way he did, and in Beethoven … I saw a film of the cello sonatas with Leonard Rose, and there's not much visible contact between the two.
但我从来没有模仿过他的演奏法，因为我不想成为一个低配版格伦·古尔德。我16岁时，第一次弹了哥德堡变奏曲，我记得当时去图书馆听古尔德的录音，就是1955年录制的那张出名的唱片。尽管我只听过一遍，我甚至没听他弹的版本，就自己录了十二平均律钢琴曲集。古尔德弹的曲子，既有让人为之喝彩的部分，也有人们难以接受的部分。你会想知道，为什么他这样处理莫扎特的作品，又为什么那样处理贝多芬的作品……我看过李纳德·罗斯（Leonard Rose）大提琴奏鸣曲的录影，他和古尔德之间没什么联系。
His memory and his ideas were extraordinary, but he was eccentric and incredibly neurotic as well. There's a lot of sadness in his life – that it ended so soon, that he was taking all those pills. I sometimes think the cult of Gould is a little exaggerated, so that we end up talking about the personality rather than how he played the piano.
他有出色的记忆力和绝妙的想法，但他也性格古怪，时常会犯神经质。古尔德一生有太多的悲情——不过他会服药，很快就不感到痛苦了。我有时认为，有些过度痴迷古尔德了，所以，我们不谈他的性格，而专注于他弹琴的方式。
Stephen Hough
史蒂芬·霍夫
Although Gould seemed to be ahead of his time - a prophet even - when he saw people preferring to listen to music on recordings rather than in the concert hall, what he didn't see was that technology would make recorded music so available and anarchic. The LP record's hi-fidelity made it possible for him to live comfortably on the profits of his royalties.
尽管古尔德看起来不像他那个时代的人——甚至有点预言家的气息——尤其是在他看到人们更喜欢听演奏录音，而非听音乐会现场。他所忽略的是，科技让音乐唱片容易获得，同时也扰乱了唱片市场。黑胶唱片的高保真性，让他足以靠版权赚一点利润，生活上还算轻松。
It would be impossible for him to do this in today's higher-fidelity, streaming, reproducing marketplace where questions are being raised about the ability to maintain copyright control on any level. Nevertheless he created a new way of thinking about recorded music where the LP became an art form in itself - not just a replica of a live performance.And that first recording of the Goldberg Variations, so alive and alert and fresh - accompanied by legends of soaking arms, thick gloves and creaky seats - ushered in a new era in public relations.
如果生活在今天的高保真、流媒体、再版市场，古尔德一定不会过得那么轻松，能否维护版权控制，在今天一直是个问题。然而，他对黑胶成为艺术形式本身有自己的想法——不仅仅是现场表演的复制品。哥德堡变奏曲的第一版录音，生动、鲜明——伴随着湿透的手臂、戴着厚手套、坐在咯吱作响的凳子上——开创公共关系新时代。
But beyond all the fashion and myth, Glenn Gould was a transcendental pianist. Even if all he touched turned to Gould (few artists are as recognisable across so many different styles) he nevertheless played with a heated passion of communication - made all the more telling and poignant delivered as it was from a reclusive apartment in the cold suburbs of Toronto.
* Stephen Hough performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican on 12 October.
但是，除了古尔德身上所有的时尚感和神秘感之外，他是一位杰出的钢琴家。即使他接触的钢琴家都变成了古尔德（很少有艺术家在不同的风格中还能彰显自身特色）。然而，古尔德激情洋溢的弹琴，就好像琴声是从多伦多寒冷郊区隐蔽宅子里传出来的声音一样，琴声诉说着故事，时而灵动，时而哀伤。 
Steven Osborne
史蒂夫·奥斯本
I can't think of the Goldberg Variations without Gould. I find what he does so utterly compelling that I've never really thought to learn the piece myself: I think about the Goldbergs, and just imagine him playing, and there's no point in playing it like him again. Initially, it was his second recording of it, the one he made in 1981, that I heard.
一提到哥德堡变奏曲，我就想到古尔德。我发现他处理得扣人心弦，我绝不会想到去自学这首曲子：我想到哥德堡变奏曲，就想象古尔德在弹琴，像他一样再弹一遍就没意义了。我最初听的是他于1981年录制的第二版唱片。
The contrapuntal detail he finds in every bar is amazing; no one has equalled the way he plays the aria. But even more extraordinary is the line he creates that connects the whole piece.I'm not sure I have heard anything where every single note is placed so carefully, is so carefully thought about. For some people, it's too controlled, but I don't find that. And yet I prefer his 1955 recording of the piece.
他在……所发现的每一个对位细节都很惊人，无人能与他弹咏叹调的方式相匹敌，更让人叹为观止的是，他写的小节能串联整个作品。我不确定他弹出来的每个音符都是认真处理，仔细考虑过的。对很多人来说，这有点过于谨慎，但我不认为如此。然而我更喜欢1955年的那版录音。
I can't think of a single artist who made such a profound change in their approach to a piece throughout their whole career. In the later record, he sometimes goes at half the speed of the earlier one. And what makes the earlier record so wonderful is its spontaneity – it's really happening in the moment, and it just makes me smile. It's a combination of the incredible technical control he has, but it's also that he is expressing something so incredibly powerful. It's a sucker punch.
一个艺术家，在他们的演奏生涯中，大幅改变一首作品的演奏方法，我不知道还有哪个人会这样做了。在1981年那版录音中，他弹的比1955年那版慢一半。1955年那版录音如此精彩是因其发挥自然——真的就在那一刻，我听完后会心一笑。那版的录音不仅是他对技术控制的完美拿捏，还是他对某种力量的诠释。太厉害了！
Pierre Laurent Aimard
皮埃尔·劳伦特·艾玛德
I am fascinated by the strength of Gould's personality, his intelligence, his cleverness, and the way he was able to realise his own world so completely through his playing.I have a great admiration as a pianist for how he did that. He could be very interesting and funny, and his writings are always quality entertainment.
我被古尔德性格中的力量、智慧、机敏、以及他投入的演奏来实现自己的世界的方式所深深吸引。我作为一个钢琴家，非常敬佩古尔德，佩服他是如何做到这些事的。他风趣幽默，写的作品总是高水准曲子，还不失娱乐性。
He was an eccentric, certainly, but the way he absorbed the music he played, the way he realised the polyphony of, say, Bach, makes him an interesting phenomenon and ensures his place in the pantheon of Bach players.But I am somehow frustrated and irritated by the result in his recordings. Frustrated because he seems to be living in an exclusively Glenn Gould world.
他的确古怪，但是他投入的演奏音乐的方式，他弹的巴赫复调作品，让他成为一个有趣的现象级人物，在一众巴赫作品演奏家中占有一席之地。但我现在对他的唱片有点失望和愤怒。失望是因为他看起来只活在格伦·古尔德自己的小世界里。
The question is how he communicates his emotions through the sound of the instrument. There is a problem with his motoric, automatic approach to tempo, and there is a problem with his sound. It's not that it's not a beautiful sound, it's rather that there is no flexibility in the way he phrases the melodies and harmonies of what he's playing.
问题是他使用乐器的声音来表达自身情感的方式。他处理节奏时，双手自发的去触碰琴键。他的琴声也有些问题，并不是声音不好，而是他演奏时，处理旋律与和声时不够灵活。
And the irritation? That comes from the mannerisms and the affectations of his playing. What you are aiming for, as a listener, is to forget about the performer, to listen just to the music, but in Gould's playing, there is too much that disturbs to forget about him. There are many clever commercial reasons for the cult of Gould that existed during his lifetime and still does now. I'm not a fan nor a member of that club, but I'm more frustrated by the fact that for many people he is the Bach interpreter.There are many other people who are really remarkable in this music, and Gould is certainly not a person who plays Bach's music in a way that is without question-marks.
那又为何愤怒呢？那是因为他演奏时，过于彰显自己的风格，显得做作。作为听众，你所追求的，就是忘记演奏者，专注音乐本身，但是在古尔德的演奏中，有太多干扰源了，观众无法忘记他的存在。在古尔德一生中，甚至到现在，还流传着许多痴迷古尔德的种种原因。我不是古尔德粉，但很多人认为他是巴赫最好的诠释者，这一点让我很失望。还有很多钢琴家演绎的巴赫都非常精彩，古尔德确实不能算是弹巴赫作品不受外界质疑的那个人。
Francesco Piemontesi
弗朗西斯科·皮埃蒙特
Gould's sound, his perspectives, the way he experimented with recording techniques, are often in my thoughts. I'm grateful he left so much interesting material for us to listen to, to read and to amuse ourselves with. His humour is really unique – take a look at his alter egos, the German musicologist Dr Klopweisser, the English conductor Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite and the hostile critic Theodore Slutz.
古尔德的琴声、他对音乐的看法、以及他的录音技术方式时常萦绕在我的脑海。他留下了如此多有趣的材料供我们聆听、阅读和自娱自乐，我心存感激。一瞥他的至交们-德国的音乐学者Klopweisser博士，英国的指挥家Nigel Twitt-Thornwait爵士，还有颇有敌意的评论家Theodore Slutz，可见他独特的幽默感。
But the most important aspect of the work Gould did was his love affair with the recording process. He thought of technology as a creative experience within classical music. There is a wonderful video where you see him playing around (with the help of different microphones) with different sound perspectives within a Scriabin prélude.
古尔德所做的工作中，最为重要的一面当属他对录音工程的钟情。他把录音技术视为古典音乐中创造性体验的一部分。有一部记录古尔德如何用不同的声音把玩音乐的空间感，那是一个关于斯克里亚宾的前奏曲的视频，令人惊叹不已。
The sound landscapes he creates through this process remind me of a good régisseur who shows you the same scene from different angles and thereby creates contrasting psychological perspectives. (I'm thinking, for instance, of the opening scene of David Lynch's Blue Velvet.) From what I understand of Gould, he dismissed the almost religious atmosphere of the concert hall and was keen to establish a more equal relationship between artist and listener. He even encouraged the listener to "manipulate" the sound of recordings to create the ideal conditions for a particular piece of music. In an article published in the 60s he wrote: "There is nothing to prevent a dedicated connoisseur from acting as his own tape-editor, and exercising such interpretative predilections as will permit him to create his own ideal performance."
古尔德通过这一录音工程创造的声音实景让我想起杰出的电影制作人，大师通过不同的角度呈现出同样的景色，而由此创造出了具有强烈冲突的精神视角。（比如，我想起了大卫•林奇导演的《蓝色丝绒》序幕。）据我对古尔德的了解，他摒弃了绝大部分音乐厅的仪式气氛，而热衷于在艺术家和听众之间构建一种平等的关系。他甚至鼓励听众亲手“操控”录音，针对特定的曲子造就理想的条件。在一篇发表于60年代的文章中，古尔德写到：“从来没有什么可以阻止一个音乐鉴赏家进行他自己的录音剪辑，随心所欲地创作自己的理想音乐。”
This process, in which he certainly was a pioneer, led to very inspiring results: you can hear, for instance, how he creates a sound landscape in his late recording of La Valse by Ravel, almost as if he was playing with different microphone perspectives as he did in the Scriabin. Only, the Ravel recording was done without the aforementioned mic trick - it was his playing doing all of this.
这一过程带来了一系列启发性的结果，其中古尔德毋庸置疑地扮演了先驱者的角色：举例说，在他晚期演奏的拉威尔的《圆舞曲》（La Valse）录音中，你可以听到他是如何创造声音实景的，这一过程正同他先前在斯克里亚宾前奏曲中把玩麦克风指向性的操作一样。只是，在拉威尔作品的录音中并没有使用先前所说的麦克风把戏，而是他的演奏操纵了这一切。
I find his courage to take a very distinctive path with his interpretations fascinating. And often with wonderful results - particularly in his recordings of 20th-century music. But with all the due respect for the quality of his playing and the poignance of his ideas, I never was a fan of his Bach. As far as I can see, he often regards Bach as abstract material, isolating the music from its historical perspective. But the works were written in a particular period of time, in a limited geographical part of Europe, in a well-defined Protestant view of the world. I have difficulty, too, listening to his readings of Mozart: he deliberately chooses to cross every line in terms of form, structure, harmony and musical language. The price for singularity is too high for my own taste.
我着迷于他在作品演绎中不走寻常路的勇气。而且总会有些令人惊奇的结果，尤其是在他二十世纪音乐的录音中表现最为突出。但从他演奏的质量以及观点的深刻性这两个关键的方面来讲，我从来都不是他巴赫作品的粉丝。在我来看，他总是把巴赫的作品当成抽象的素材，把音乐从他的历史观中隔绝开来。然而，巴赫作品都是创作在特定时期、欧洲有限的特定地域和明确的新教世界观中的。我同样难以接受他演绎的莫扎特：他有意冲破音乐形式、结构、和声及语言的界限。欣赏他的独特音乐，未免要付出太多的代价了。
Gould's ideas of sound and interpretation flourish best without going out of context in 20th-century music - Prokofiev, Ravel, but also rarely performed works by Krenek and Strauss. Most composers from this time allow you more freedom to apply your own ideas.
古尔德对音乐的理解和诠释放在二十世纪音乐中（——普罗科菲耶夫、拉威尔的作品）才有了广阔的施展空间，以及克热内克和施特劳斯极少被演奏的作品。这一时期的作品大多赋予了演奏者诠释个人观点的极大自由。
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