Supposedly, we are most fond of songs we listened to in our adolescence. Fortunately, though I was in my teens when "I want to hold your hand" swept over the country, today, I am most fond of the music I found in my 20's, including that of J.S. Bach, and especially J.S. Bach played by that ineffable pianistic genius, Glenn Gould.
Though Gould was a somewhat unconventional character, bundling up in coats and gloves when it was 90 degrees out, giving up live performances when he was but 32, and calling people in the middle of the night from his hermetic Toronto apartment, he was a master of Bach. He was given to conducting himself (with a free hand) and singing along with his playing. This singing, though it drove the record producers mad, is excused by Gould admirers as proof that he was so full of the majesty of Bach's music that it spilled out of him however it could: through his fingers on the keyboard and his Soto voice accompaniment.
My love of Bach inexplicitly includes a fascination with Gould himself. Before the advent of the Internet (and NetFlix), I once flew from Charlotte, NC to New York City to see the film, "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould" as I was certain it would never show up in Charlotte. Today, with the Internet and with YouTube, you can almost get all the Gould you can stand... Enjoy.
P.S. The piece of music featured in the video is the Italian Concerto In F Major, BWV 971: third movement, Presto, which can be found at a very reasonable price here.
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