Goldberg wrote:Brewtality wrote:Goldberg wrote:No, Gould didn't really hate Mozart (though he did dislike the late sonatas). He just had a natural tendency to avoid Mozart because his mother, from an early age, continually denied all claims that he was a "Mozartean prodigy", because Mozart was associated with being an epitome of over-explotation of genius at an early age, resulting in a horrible life. His mother wanted to avoid this kind of exploitation and association with Mozart, so Gould always remained wary of the composer later on in life. But, he admitted that Mozart was sort of a "guilty pleasure" of his and enjoyed playing all of his sonatas--even the latter ones--if only because the fingerwork was incredibly fun to play. There were some that he absolutely adored, though. But I think his relationship to Mozart was hardly different than the one he had to Beethoven. Some complain that Gould altered the score too much, but similar changes can be seen in many other recordings as well, even the WTC.
Mozart wasn't his favourite composer (that was reserved for Gibbons and Byrd, interestingly) but I do believe he mostly liked his music.
he said that mozart was a lousy composer (or words to that effect)
But why would he record the complete sonata cycle of a "lousy composer"?
To show that he was a "well-rounded" musician, of course
.