Glenn Gould was a brilliant musician who turned in some splendid performances. I have always found his Bach fussy and mechanical, but his Brahms is exquisite, including his performance of the first concerto mentioned in this article. But Gould was also eccentric to maybe just this side of being flat-out nuts. His aversion to public peformance should hardly be regarded anything other than his personal problem. Say what you will, there really is nothing like a great live performance. And performance is not primarily about perfection. Karajan's preoccupation with perfection made his recorded performances sound increasingly sterile. As Maugham observed, "perfection is a trifle dull."
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