Music: Singing Mahler to the Elephants

A new biography explores the eccentric genius of Glenn Gould

Among the few modern concert performers whom even the tone-deaf have heard of, none is more intriguing than the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould -- not only because of his electrifying reinventions of Bach's Goldberg Variations, among other pieces, but also because of the strikingly eccentric artistic creation that was his life. Who could forget the singular genius who shuffled about on summer days swathed in mufflers and overcoats (because of his hypochondria), and in concerts sat himself down on a pygmy chair and proceeded to sigh, groan, sing and wave his hands about as he played? Who could resist the story...

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