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25 August 2007

Glenn Gould and Cornelia Foss -- music, art, love, passion, heartbreak


The Toronto Star
Toronto Ontario Canada
Saturday 25 August 2007
The secret life of Glenn Gould
by Michael Clarkson
Special to the Star
BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. -- When Glenn Gould died young 25 years ago, friends were stunned to find a love letter in his cluttered Toronto apartment, among the empty pill pots and records.
"I am deeply in love with a certain beautiful girl. I asked her to marry me, but she turned me down but I still love her more than anything in the world and every minute I can spend with her is pure heaven ..."
It was the curtain call of not so much a life as an opera for perhaps the greatest piano virtuoso of the 20th century, who moved millions with his spiritual renditions of Bach, but was so afraid of intimacy and germs he was reluctant to let people touch him.
"No supreme pianist has ever given of his heart and mind so overwhelmingly while showing himself so sparingly," said renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
History tells us that Gould, like so many geniuses, attained musical nirvana by giving up earthly desires for his work and that he could not love unless his Steinway was in the room.
And yet, for four-and-a-half years, Gould allowed a beautiful, married artist to care for him, to caress him. In the words of his favourite Barbra Streisand song, "He Touched Me" – "Suddenly ... nothing was the same." To this day, Gould is remembered as a Canadian cultural giant, yet his private life remains shrouded in mystery. For most of his adult life, rumours abounded that he was asexual or gay.
Gould was so paranoid about exposing his private life, he would cut off any colleagues or friends who discussed it and once fired a cleaning lady for gossiping about him.
Now, for the first time, we know that the intensely private Gould carried on an affair for five years, beginning in 1967, with a married German-American painter named Cornelia Foss. She left her husband Lukas, himself a prominent pianist and conductor, and moved her two children to Toronto at the height of the affair. A year before her move, Gould had asked her to marry him.
This bold attempt at domesticity may have marked the most intense chapter in Gould's lifelong struggle with his demons. His phobias and pill-popping for a number of maladies, many of them imaginary, likely contributed to his early death on October 4, 1982, nine days after his 50th birthday.
At her summer home in the Hamptons, Foss spoke to me recently – her first published interview on the subject – about life with Glenn Gould.
It is a story of obsession and heartbreak. Most of all, it is the rarest of windows into the guarded inner life of one of the 20th century's most compelling, and mystifying, artistic figures.
"I think there were a lot of misconceptions about Glenn and it was partly because he was so very private," Foss said.
"But I assure you, he was an extremely heterosexual man. Our relationship was, among other things, quite sexual."
One night in 1956, the glamorous young Fosses – Lukas and Cornelia – were driving to dinner near their Los Angeles home when Bach's "Goldberg Variations" came on the car radio. Lukas, a dynamic pianist, composer and conductor, was so enraptured by the brilliantly unorthodox interpretation – by an obscure young Canadian named Glenn Gould – he stopped the car and pulled over to listen for so long they were late for dinner.
A short time later, Lukas was rehearsing for a show with Leonard Bernstein in balmy L.A. when a blond, baby-faced 24-year-old Gould showed up unannounced in winter clothes. "My husband looked up and saw a hat and scarf coming toward him," Cornelia recalled, chuckling. "(Gould) said to Lukas, `Hello, I'm Glenn Gould. I came to hear the greatest pianist in the world.'"
Lukas was 34 at the time and his wife 25. It was the beginning of a long relationship for all of them.
"I was drawn to his handsome looks and his huge intelligence," Foss said. "He had an original mind, was extraordinarily canny and had an enormous sense of humour."
Gould was attracted by Cornelia's striking looks, intelligence and independent streak. The daughter of an art-historian father and a mother who was also an expert in classical art, she had studied sculpture at the American Academy in Rome, where she was introduced to Lukas by the famous American composer Aaron Copland.
(The Fosses had both fled the Nazis in their native Germany and were educated in Europe and California.)
In Los Angeles, the couple lived in actor John Barrymore's old house and held parties for the heavyweights of the American music scene. "They were very social and we had fascinating evenings," said Cornelia's close friend, Edith Wyle. "Cornelia was always charming."
The Fosses first saw Gould perform live in 1956 in L.A. The Gould experience was a true novelty, both for the couple and the classical music world – he sat sidesaddle at the piano in a trance, swooning and swaying, humming while conducting himself with his free hand as his hair flew about.
"He was the James Dean of classical music," said Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic of the Washington Post and a friend of Gould's. "He made Bach swing."
And yet, prior to his concerts, fans were given cards, asking not to shake Gould's hand because he said he was afraid of hurting his fingers. Many people felt he was more afraid of intimacy and catching germs. "He almost certainly desired more physical contact than his anxiety permitted him to enjoy," wrote Kevin Bazzana, editor of Glenn Gould Magazine in his book Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould.
Much of Gould's intimate contact came in the act of musical collaboration, and he and Lukas worked together on some scores and on Gould's radio documentaries. He and the Fosses grew close. In 1962, when the couple's L.A. home burned down, destroying 27 of Cornelia's paintings, Gould consoled her and "was very kind to me."
The following year, in 1963, Lukas found work as conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fosses couldn't have been happier. Gould lived just 90 minutes away in Toronto.
"Glenn phoned my home a lot. It started out as a friendship with Lukas and Glenn and me, but slowly Glenn and I began a love affair," Cornelia said. "Our life together moved slowly forward and was carefully planned."
Suddenly, she found herself swept away by a second blue-eyed pianist with a strong face who looked deeply into life. But Gould's personality couldn't have been more different than Lukas's. Gould bordered on reclusive, whereas Lukas did not meet a person he did not want to embrace.
They were both highly driven though. "They were very passionate, had enormous ability and had great love for what they were doing," she said. "I think Lukas was even more passionate and driven than Glenn."
Lukas became suspicious of the pair when Gould began phoning their home, pretending to be someone else, as he often did for fun, introducing himself as one of his many fictional alter egos: Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite, the dean of British conductors; Theodore Slutz, a New York cabbie; or Herbert von Hochmeister, sage of the Arctic. Gould would sometimes have his calls answered by the Fosses's Chinese maid, but he didn't realize that the maid was Lukas, returning the strange joke. Cornelia says in 1966 Gould asked her to marry him. And she considered it.
Then, in 1967, she left Lukas. "There were a few problems in our marriage, but that's not why I left – I fell in love with someone else," she said. Cornelia put her two young children, 9-year-old Christopher and 5-year-old Eliza, into their station wagon and left Buffalo.
"I'll never forget Lukas standing by the station wagon and smiling," she recalled. "I said, `Why are you smiling – I'm leaving you for Glenn.' He said, `Don't be ridiculous, you'll be back.'"
Cornelia bought a house in Toronto near Gould's penthouse apartment at 110 St. Clair Ave. W. and Avenue Rd.
In some ways, Gould and Foss made an odd couple. She, socialite artist in pearls; he, forever wearing a battleship grey expression, British driving cap and winter gloves – even in summer. Yet both were intense intellectuals into mind games.
She also fell for his sense of humour. One day he rolled on the floor laughing because the University of Toronto had started a course: "The Mind of Glenn Gould." "`Imagine how ridiculous!' he said. He wanted to go to a class, disguised in a wig, but he never did."
The couple took her kids on trips to hotels in Muskoka and spent a lot of time at Cornelia's house because Gould guarded his messy penthouse.
Those close to Gould say that, even before Cornelia, there were many groupies and a number of relationships with women, including an English piano student who tattooed the main theme from Gould's String Quartet on her back; a woman from Texas who said she was going to start shooting people at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Sts. if Gould didn't marry her; and the wife of a magazine editor who Gould said "gave me bad reviews because he was jealous."
But Marilyn Kecskes, the superintendent of Gould's building, said he brought precious few women to his apartment, which at the time was his studio for practising and writing.
"I don't know any woman who could have lived in that apartment with Mr. Gould – he was so terribly messy," Kecskes said.
Gould and Cornelia made a rare appearance together in 1967 at a private screening in New York for one of the television programs he had begun producing. "It was a different Glenn Gould that I saw during that day," Andrew Kazdin, Gould's record producer for 15 years, wrote in his book Glenn Gould at Work. "Instead of the self-absorbed centre of attention, I witnessed an attentive escort to Cornelia. `Was she comfortable?' `Could he get her anything?' There was no doubt that Cornelia Foss held a special place in his life."
Although she holds back some intimate details of their affair, Foss says Gould was very romantic.
Gould never talked about having children. "I was in my 30s by then and in those days it was considered too old to have children," Foss said. "Anyway, he had Christopher and Eliza and he was wonderful with them, playing puzzles and helping Chris with his math."
But Cornelia saw disturbing signs in Gould as early as 1967, just two weeks after she had left her husband.
Gould, she said, had a serious paranoid episode. "It lasted several hours and then I knew he was not just neurotic – there was more to it. I thought to myself, `Good grief, am I going to bring up my children in this environment?' But I stayed four and a-half years."
Foss did not discuss details, but others close to Gould said he was convinced someone was trying to poison him and that others were spying on him. There was no evidence of that, although other women sought him romantically and people tried to break into his mailbox (the screwdriver marks are still there).
The late psychiatrist Peter Ostwald, a violinist and friend of Gould, founded a health program for musicians and wrote the book Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius. Ostwald believed that Gould's personality, lifestyle and narcissism made it "unendurable" for any woman to live with him. According to the psychiatrist, who briefly treated Gould, he could be a control freak, inflexible and manipulative (although Gould could also at times be giving and sympathetic, friends said).
Cornelia was one of Gould's obsessions. "He'd tell me she did this, and she said that. He couldn't seem to get her out of his mind," said Dr. Joseph Stephens, a fellow pianist and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. Perhaps she filled a void for Gould after he quit a hectic schedule of public performances in 1964 because he considered audiences "evil" and distracting.
"He didn't like being showcased on stage," Cornelia said.
Gould once said during an interview, "All love relationships are addictive – just as much so as alcohol and tobacco." Indeed, Gould had a lot of addictions and obsessions – he often worked seven days a week, worried constantly about his body and his health, and ate just one meal a day – scrambled eggs at neighbouring Fran's Restaurant, usually in the middle of the night.
But he continued to play piano in recording and television studios and was a successful producer of radio and television documentaries. Away from the keyboard, Gould was as strange as ever, wearing winter clothes in summer and hankies over his face to shield himself from germs, as his overprotective mother had advised.
(During his years with Cornelia, Gould was estranged from both his parents, she said.)
Cornelia got so involved with nurturing him, her name was found on his pharmacy bills. Her care seemed to have a positive effect because at about that time, Gould told an interviewer that, as far as his health was concerned, those years were "the best of my life."
At Cornelia's house, the couple would sometimes invite friends and colleagues for dinner and corny games such as Twenty Questions. "It was a trial at domesticity," Ostwald said.
Certainly it was the longest relationship of its kind for the pianist, who usually balked at romance, according to the late Greta Krause, a pianist and harpsichordist, a friend of Gould and confidante to some of his female friends. "He could not accept love," she said. "I had the feeling that any expression of affection would cause him to panic."
Cornelia had her own distractions. A talented artist, she had to put her career on hold and she never painted Gould's portrait. "In those days, I didn't have the peace of mind to be able to paint. I was taking care of Glenn and Lukas and my two children," she said. "I went back to Buffalo for Lukas every weekend."
In Toronto, Gould and Foss looked at real estate and planned to buy a house if they married, but he refused to get treatment for his emotional problems, she said, "or even admit that he had them."
Many biographers claim that Gould never married because his mistress was music, but Foss calls that nonsense. "Apart from the paranoia, he would have been a good husband and father ... but his phobias got worse. He was just too ill."
Cornelia ended their affair in 1972, rejoining Lukas in New York, where he was appointed conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
But Gould didn't give up so easily, driving 950 kilometres to the couple's summer home in the ritzy Hamptons to convince her to return. That was out of character for Gould, who usually cut women off when they rejected him.
They were still in love, but Foss could not expose her children to Gould's phobias and paranoia any longer. "We talked in a bungalow on the beach and it was very painful for both of us," she recalled. "We still had strong feelings for one another and it was sad to see him in so much pain, and that I was part of that pain."
Even when she sent him home, Gould refused to give up hope and phoned Cornelia practically every night for two years, she said, until she finally convinced him to stop.
Gould became even more reclusive into his 40s. "People are as important to me as food," he grumbled. "As I grow older, I find I can do more and more without them ... monastic seclusion works for me."
Gould died of a stroke on Oct. 4, 1982, with anxiety and high blood pressure as possible contributing factors. About 3,000 people attended his funeral, but not Cornelia "because I didn't think it would be appropriate."
After his death, friends found a note by Gould, yearning for a woman he code-named Dell, which puzzled Gould's many biographers, some of whom believed it was fictitious. But they overlooked Cornelia's maiden name – Brendel. To this day, she seems uneasy with the note and doubts it is about her.
Now an art instructor known for her sea and landscape oils, Cornelia, 76, turned down an offer to have the note read to her."He was so private, he'd roll over in his grave, worrying that someone might find writings with his emotions on them," she said. Cornelia's daughter grew up to be an actress, her son a corporate strategist. And she takes care of Lukas, who has Parkinson's.
"Most of my life has been lucky," she told an art reviewer recently. "There's nothing sadder than to do something you don't want to do, or not knowing how to go about getting what you want."
- 30 -
Michael Clarkson, a former Toronto Star reporter, has written five psychology books, four on fears and phobias. He is now writing a screenplay involving Glenn Gould and can be reached at feardoctor@rogers.com
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2007
==========
Cornelia Foss
Born in Berlin, Germany, Cornelia Foss spent her formative years studying with various sculptors and painters in Rome, including John Roden, Mirko Basaldella and Stephen Green, who was resident at the American Academy in Rome. After settling in Los Angeles, she studied at the Kann Art Institute with Rico Lebrun and Howard Warsaw.
In addition to the National Academy, Ms. Foss teaches at the Art Students League where she originated a lecture series featuring painters, art historians and critics of note, including Larry Rivers, April Gornick, David Rosand and Michael Kimmelman.
She had her first solo show at the Ferrus Gallery in Los Angeles and later exhibited at the James Goodman gallery, Buffalo, and is currently represented by the DFN Gallery, NYC, where she had a recent solo exhibition in May, 2005. Featured in numerous solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, her work is also featured in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Museum for Women and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. among many other public and private collections.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huh ? I first heard of this story about 10 years ago, it has made the rounds among Gouldians for a while now, so there is nothing really new there, the main point is that there is no real proof to it. And even if....so what ???

Maybe I am wrong but I think the City Desk Editor was in a Gouldian Mood and asked a staff writer to do this piece. Unfortunetly there is nothing essential in it. Just half-baked rumours, chitchat and grapewine. I reckon they needed something to fill the pages during a Slow News Summer day.

hey Bob, no offence meant, but you are a proper journo (not like me, I am just Man On The Ground aka Foreigns Correspondent for your blog in CH), how could you fall for a page filer story like this one ?

Vleeptron Dude said...

Yo Man-on-the-Ground-in-the-Alps --

I'm so tired of all the rest of the news this year -- war and Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, sordidness, cruelty, stupidity -- that I read this as if it was a delicious 8-course haute cuisine meal.

I don't care about Solving The Mystery of the Love Letter. I'm just happy that for a few years, he found Love, and was rescued from his life sentence of Loneliness. I've surfed today and seen a lot of her art, she's really top-tier.

He had someone he could talk to, he had someone who (as much as anyone ever could) understood him! This is a very sweet story, and if I really am the Last To Know (I saw an old f_minor post asking about Cornelia Foss), at least this story had her first-person reminiscences, it put meat on the bones of this story. It put a face to the object of his Love.

Anonymous said...

cher Bob, I'm with you one this one. As everyone knows, when CH became a people a few things were left out, love and romance being two of them. Oh there are plenty of 'PROOFS OF LOVE'ie chocolates and flowers given and received, la Suisse being the world record holder in the category which only proves my point. Throw money at the problem and it will go away. Sort of like Africa. I live by the big CH lake and I know whereof I speak, even if I don't spell my name with 3 or 4 consecutive consonants. Try this on for size: "Last December in Miami, he gave her a pair of gloves for a birthday present. Inside the left glove, way down at the tip of the fourth finger, she found a diamond ring, stuck there like a piece of popcorn." That is how Christopher Foss, Cornelia's son, proposed marriage to his sweetheart. Now if that wasn't Gould inspired I'll eat MY gloves. The quote is from the NYT: VOWS; Andree Corroon, Christopher Foss, 5 July 1998. An echo of romance is still romance, perhaps THE PROOF of romance is its echo in a glove. Fromsch, I insist on the sch otherwise he's an alpine imposter (which would be an excercise in futility)is wrong. Furthermore, WHO begins a statement with Huh? No friend of mine. Trou de q...

matthew said...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33477748@N02/4559084148/in/set-72157623871941040/

On this site you can see a collection of Cornelia Foss Paintings , Painted in the late 60's all 18x23

Vleeptron Dude said...

hey hi matthew thanks!

I hope you're not trying to drum up customers for Ms. Foss ... her price tags are a little out of my league.

But the images I've seen of her work -- GG clearly fell in love with a talent in visual art comparable to his in music.

These heights of talent and intellect leave an artist or musician quite lonely in a special way -- surrounded by people, but very little "connection" with most of them.

It's all about finding someone who understands. It's all about having someone you can talk to. It's about finding someone who perceives the world in as much depth and dimension as you do.

Okay matthew, welcome to Vleeptron. Now ... who are you, where are you, what are you? Artist? Musician? Mathematician? Chess or Go player? Pirate? Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor?

Nikki Ty said...

It's a terrific story. The paucity of hard facts and lurid tell-all details are part of the charm. I followed Gould's life very closely as a young girl in Montreal. I was fortunate enough to hear a live concert by Gould in Montreal towards the end of his performing career. I still have the autographed copy of that program. He was scheduled to play something else but at the last moment, agreed to play the Goldbergs .....

I also have a beautiful letter he took the time to write to me when I asked if he would reconsider taking on a student since I'd just won a Canada Council grant and could presumably pay whatever fees necessary. He wouldn't take students but was gracious enough to write to me, by hand ... and wish me well. Such grace.


Since Gould was not taking students my second choice was Juilliard. I tackled the Goldbergs that summer before heading down to New York for the first fall semester. I got through a mere ten of them. In September, I marched into my new teacher's studio, quite full of myself. The reaction I got was memorable. The teacher looked at me with horror ... and said "You play yoost like Glenn Goooooould ...." I beamed. "Und you boze play like schumucks ..." He chased me out of the class howling at me.

It was a high point. The ultimate compliment. Although I later switched teachers. And suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before I graduated, playing on "automatic" since I could no longer read the notes. I never played the piano again.

Now after 30 years, I'm walking the old paths ... picking up thread and memories. Now the music is on my piano and I pick out the notes ... and it's coming back. The demon is gone. And I'm fascinated by the treasures to be found online. The Utube clips and the amount of information there is now available.

Naturally being curious about Gould's personal life, I found fragments here and there of a romance. And this delights me. The world of the artist is so very lonely. I spent most of my life isolated ... operating on a shallow social level ... with no human resonance on a deeper level. The level which creates and thinks and is so very rich. I love to think that somewhere in this odd genius's life there was, even for a few years ... that magical resonance, which at the end of it all, may be what is ultimately most precious.

The lack of details, the very fragility of the tale is what is so delightful. We need nothing more .... only this wraith of romance ...

I love this reprint. And your interesting post of Cornelia Foss's extraordinary painting of Gould done so recently. Who can doubt the love affair when so many years later, this image remains in Foss's mind and is brought to life again. Thanks ...

Nikki Ty said...

It's a terrific story. The paucity of hard facts and lurid tell-all details are part of the charm. I followed Gould's life very closely as a young girl in Montreal. I was fortunate enough to hear a live concert by Gould in Montreal towards the end of his performing career. I still have the autographed copy of that program. He was scheduled to play something else but at the last moment, agreed to play the Goldbergs .....

I also have a beautiful letter he took the time to write to me when I asked if he would reconsider taking on a student since I'd just won a Canada Council grant and could presumably pay whatever fees necessary. He wouldn't take students but was gracious enough to write to me, by hand ... and wish me well. Such grace.


Since Gould was not taking students my second choice was Juilliard. I tackled the Goldbergs that summer before heading down to New York for the first fall semester. I got through a mere ten of them. In September, I marched into my new teacher's studio, quite full of myself. The reaction I got was memorable. The teacher looked at me with horror ... and said "You play yoost like Glenn Goooooould ...." I beamed. "Und you boze play like schumucks ..." He chased me out of the class howling at me.

It was a high point. The ultimate compliment. Although I later switched teachers. And suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before I graduated, playing on "automatic" since I could no longer read the notes. I never played the piano again.

Now after 30 years, I'm walking the old paths ... picking up thread and memories. Now the music is on my piano and I pick out the notes ... and it's coming back. The demon is gone. And I'm fascinated by the treasures to be found online. The Utube clips and the amount of information there is now available.

Naturally being curious about Gould's personal life, I found fragments here and there of a romance. And this delights me. The world of the artist is so very lonely. I spent most of my life isolated ... operating on a shallow social level ... with no human resonance on a deeper level. The level which creates and thinks and is so very rich. I love to think that somewhere in this odd genius's life there was, even for a few years ... that magical resonance, which at the end of it all, may be what is ultimately most precious.

The lack of details, the very fragility of the tale is what is so delightful. We need nothing more .... only this wraith of romance ...

I love this reprint. And your interesting post of Cornelia Foss's extraordinary painting of Gould done so recently. Who can doubt the love affair when so many years later, this image remains in Foss's mind and is brought to life again. Thanks ...

Nikki Ty said...

It's a terrific story. The paucity of hard facts and lurid tell-all details are part of the charm. I followed Gould's life very closely as a young girl in Montreal. I was fortunate enough to hear a live concert by Gould in Montreal towards the end of his performing career. I still have the autographed copy of that program. He was scheduled to play something else but at the last moment, agreed to play the Goldbergs .....

I also have a beautiful letter he took the time to write to me when I asked if he would reconsider taking on a student since I'd just won a Canada Council grant and could presumably pay whatever fees necessary. He wouldn't take students but was gracious enough to write to me, by hand ... and wish me well. Such grace.


Since Gould was not taking students my second choice was Juilliard. I tackled the Goldbergs that summer before heading down to New York for the first fall semester. I got through a mere ten of them. In September, I marched into my new teacher's studio, quite full of myself. The reaction I got was memorable. The teacher looked at me with horror ... and said "You play yoost like Glenn Goooooould ...." I beamed. "Und you boze play like schumucks ..." He chased me out of the class howling at me.

It was a high point. The ultimate compliment. Although I later switched teachers. And suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before I graduated, playing on "automatic" since I could no longer read the notes. I never played the piano again.

Now after 30 years, I'm walking the old paths ... picking up thread and memories. Now the music is on my piano and I pick out the notes ... and it's coming back. The demon is gone. And I'm fascinated by the treasures to be found online. The Utube clips and the amount of information there is now available.

Naturally being curious about Gould's personal life, I found fragments here and there of a romance. And this delights me. The world of the artist is so very lonely. I spent most of my life isolated ... operating on a shallow social level ... with no human resonance on a deeper level. The level which creates and thinks and is so very rich. I love to think that somewhere in this odd genius's life there was, even for a few years ... that magical resonance, which at the end of it all, may be what is ultimately most precious.

The lack of details, the very fragility of the tale is what is so delightful. We need nothing more .... only this wraith of romance ...

I love this reprint. And your interesting post of Cornelia Foss's extraordinary painting of Gould done so recently. Who can doubt the love affair when so many years later, this image remains in Foss's mind and is brought to life again. Thanks ...

Anonymous said...

It's a terrific story. The paucity of hard facts and lurid tell-all details are part of the charm. I followed Gould's life very closely as a young girl in Montreal. I was fortunate enough to hear a live concert by Gould in Montreal towards the end of his performing career. I still have the autographed copy of that program. He was scheduled to play something else but at the last moment, agreed to play the Goldbergs .....

I also have a beautiful letter he took the time to write to me when I asked if he would reconsider taking on a student since I'd just won a Canada Council grant and could presumably pay whatever fees necessary. He wouldn't take students but was gracious enough to write to me, by hand ... and wish me well. Such grace.


Since Gould was not taking students my second choice was Juilliard. I tackled the Goldbergs that summer before heading down to New York for the first fall semester. I got through a mere ten of them. In September, I marched into my new teacher's studio, quite full of myself. The reaction I got was memorable. The teacher looked at me with horror ... and said "You play yoost like Glenn Goooooould ...." I beamed. "Und you boze play like schumucks ..." He chased me out of the class howling at me.

It was a high point. The ultimate compliment. Although I later switched teachers. And suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before I graduated, playing on "automatic" since I could no longer read the notes. I never played the piano again.

Now after 30 years, I'm walking the old paths ... picking up thread and memories. Now the music is on my piano and I pick out the notes ... and it's coming back. The demon is gone. And I'm fascinated by the treasures to be found online. The Utube clips and the amount of information there is now available.

Naturally being curious about Gould's personal life, I found fragments here and there of a romance. And this delights me. The world of the artist is so very lonely. I spent most of my life isolated ... operating on a shallow social level ... with no human resonance on a deeper level. The level which creates and thinks and is so very rich. I love to think that somewhere in this odd genius's life there was, even for a few years ... that magical resonance, which at the end of it all, may be what is ultimately most precious.

The lack of details, the very fragility of the tale is what is so delightful. We need nothing more .... only this wraith of romance ...

I love this reprint. And your interesting post of Cornelia Foss's extraordinary painting of Gould done so recently. Who can doubt the love affair when so many years later, this image remains in Foss's mind and is brought to life again. Thanks ...

Anonymous said...

Yikes. This darned site gave me an "unavailable" note ... and I reposted hoping it would go through. I didn't intend for it to go through THREE times.

This is redundance beyond the pale. Sorry ...

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate that Glenn Gould could not have fallen in love with a woman who was AVAILABLE and not become an adulterer. And how unfortunate for both Mr. Gould and Mrs. Foss's children (not to mention Mr. Foss) that she could not have abstained from messing up everyone's lives with their affair.

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate that Glenn Gould could not have fallen in love with a woman who was AVAILABLE and not become an adulterer. And how unfortunate for both Mr. Gould and Mrs. Foss's children (not to mention Mr. Foss) that she could not have abstained from messing up everyone's lives with their affair.

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate that Glenn Gould could not have fallen in love with a woman who was AVAILABLE and not become an adulterer. And how unfortunate for both Mr. Gould and Mrs. Foss's children (not to mention Mr. Foss) that she could not have abstained from messing up everyone's lives with their affair.

Vleeptron Dude said...

Hi Most Recent Anonymous --

(Vleeptron very much prefers that if you have something to say, you say it with your name, or your nick, or your blog url -- some indication that you're a real human being who backs up his or her opinions with a name and identity -- as I do.)

Romantic and sexual love IS a mess. Your comments suggest that you think it's possible to go through love with a Hoover vacuum cleaner and the rules of Christian Holy Matrimony, and clean up the mess that people in love, and in lust, make.

Last week PBS' "American Masters" series broadcast "The Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould," and for the first time (I think) Cornelia Foss and her son and her daughter gave on-camera interviews about their memories of the years in which Cornelia left her husband and took the kids to live with Glenn Gould.

The kids love their (recently deceased) dad. After the Gould affair, Cornelia went back to her conductor/composer husband with the kids. The family, and all its matrimonial virtues, resumed.

The kids loved and missed Glenn Gould. He loved them, tutored them in their schoolwork, and left them with nothing but fond memories. They were intelligent and strong enough to withstand 5 years of a very common experience among artists -- falling in love with more than one person.

Now the Foss children are in their 30s or 40s, and if their memories are any evidence, the experience of living through the affair of their mother and "Uncle Glenn" strengthened them and added dimension to their growing personalities.

What's a mess? What causes harm to child and adult alike? Too much devotion and obedience to puritanical, Calvinist ideas about heterosexual matrimony.

There are other nutritious models of human love.

Anonymous said...

They are fascinating Canadians, I am disappointed there is no wiki for Cornelia Brendel Foss.

Anonymous said...

GG, regardless of his romances, morality and reclusiveness, left his expressions of love for humanity in his work. Imagine if we would all do the same what Memorials we would now behold.

Vleeptron Dude said...

Unlike a previous somewhat puritanical negative comment above, I got no problems or complaints either with Glenn Gould's romantic life or Cornelia Foss's romantic life.

In USA and UK politics, we have long grown familiar with attacks on immoral extra-marital sexual behavior.

And those loud public attacks are inevitably followed a very short time after by the revelations and exposes that the moralistic attackers were themselves engaged in tawdry extramarital affairs, sometimes heterosexual, sometimes homosexual, sometimes involving prostitutes.

And now and then involving children.

So the first thing I think when I see puritanical attacks is: How would the attacker's sexual behavior hold up under a microscope of public scrutiny?

Glenn Gould and Cornelia Foss have made the world a more beautiful place with their music and art.

Glenn Gould and Cornelia Foss have made the world a more beautiful place with their love. Was it messy? Sure. Love's messy. But they added love to the world. And that's a Good Thing.

www.muebleslarioja.muebles.cn said...

Well, I don't really suppose this is likely to have effect.

neuro said...

I was a little dissapointed about hearing that Glen Gould had a relationship with Cornelia. It is wrong to court a married person even if you are famous.
The childrens always pay the price later one.

neuro said...

I was a little dissapointed about hearing that Glen Gould had a relationship with Cornelia. It is wrong to court a married person even if you are famous. The children will pay the price later.

Vleeptron Dude said...

Hiya David Burke --

Whether or not they *should* have broken the rules, this is the way talented artists have always been.

As for the price the children paid, I've recently seen interviews with them -- now all grown up -- and they remember their time with Glenn Gould with great fondness; their time with him clearly enriched their childhood.

Till the end of time, talented artists will pay little or no heed to society's conventional expectations. Yet we remember what the artists left us with gratitude, and are willing to overlook the rules they broke.

Unknown said...

Your story about your love is really nice.solo music artist

Unknown said...

Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould.These are some great thought .solo music artist

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing the great story.solo music artist

Anonymous said...

No coments or empathy for Lukas? The lonliness he endoured, the loss of his kids.? I met Lukas at the Hollywood bowl and we sated and we became lovers after his wife took off. He was wonderful and sensitive and deep. When I found out he was still martied, I stopped seeing jim....now I wish I had continued. We had a certain synergy, so rare but i was so young and didnt believe in taking someones husband.

Vleeptron Dude said...

Madam, you have violated the First Rule of Vleeptron: No Anonymous Driveby Comments.

Please identify yourself, name, website, Social Security Number, identifying tatts, etc. (If you should choose to unmask, just tell Vleeptron Dude you want to keep this whole thing entre nous, and VD will be happy to take your secrets with him to the grave.)

I suspect you play some sort of classical axe. Could you at least name the instrument? I don't think stalkers can track you down from every female in every the woodwind section of Earth.

By a goofy coincidence, I got a Maestro buddy who knew and greatly admired Lukas, they'd served on a competition panel. (And by an incomprehensible ignorance of Celeb Gossip, he hadn't known about the GG connection.)

Look ... in Small Words ...

(1.) GG was stark-raving nuts. Just for a respectful taste, see the wonderful movie "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould."

(2.) Next time, however Not Young you may have become, take the offered thrill ride with the Spouse. (As my wife's mother told her: "Try not to frighten the horses." i.e., Be As Discreet As You Can.)

(3.) (and I feel most instructive) We are rapping about la Vie des Artistes here.

I applaud your youthful adherence to the VIth or VIIth Commandment, I was raised -- and educated in endless years of religious school -- with the same ideal of moral behavior regarding this Mortal Sin which was years beyond my experience or opportunity.

Truly talented artists throughout history, of all genders, make their own rules regarding sex, love, relationships, infidelity yadda yadda. (c.f. another swell flick, "Lady Caroline Lamb." There's also lots of Hot Stuff about Lady Caroline and her Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know bf, on-line and in those old book things.)

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matthew 7:1-3)

I've truly not wished to be harsh or offensive. But what you're griping about is, alas, The Way of the World. Despite angry and threatening Sunday sermons, suck it up. GG and Cornelia did it, Chopin and George Sand did it, everybody in the NYU Theater Department (varsity & faculty) did it.

"Electric eels, so they say, do it
Though it shocks them I know
Why ask if shad do it?
Waiter, bring me shad roe"

-- Cole Porter (who did it)

I used to chat with some talented high-school instrumentalists, and they were all steamed because a girl they didn't like won a recital competition. I told them to tell her, "Congratulations -- and maybe someday you'll understand what the piece means."

I got Artiste credentials and i.d. myself. I'm very happily and scrupulously faithfully married now. But in my Youth, I fell in with Bad Companions and was de temps en temps Led Astray. I don't want my Happy Marriage challenged or threatened (though I suspect she's sweet on the local butchers, Chuck and Stew).

But I also don't want my Life Experiences -- the transcendental ones, the tsunamis of passion and Bad Judgment, the ones that were criminal offenses in many U.S. states -- attacked and invalidated. I'm not running for President, ain't nobody's business but my own if I had a Mazola Party at NYU.

Respectfully,

Goofy Bob the Artiste

Vleeptron Dude said...

We're two people caught up in a flame
that has to die down soon
I didn't mean to start this fire
and neither did you

So tonight when I hold you tight
we'll let the fire burn on
and we'll sweep out the ashes in the morning

-- Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris

Anonymous said...

could Dell be monica gaylord? she used to be married to chuck daellenbach, the founder/tubist of canadian brass?

i went to school with monica daellenbach at eastman school of music. she and chuck were very happily married. they left for toronto when chuck got a teaching job at u.toronto in 1970. chuck was fun, monica was smart, sophisticated, classy in dress and manner, and a beautiful girl. she was always proper and aloof, though socially nice.

Vleeptron Dude said...

yo Anonymous the Fourth

after your violation of the First Law of Vleeptron -- no Anonymous Driveby Comments -- you have broken another rule I didn't even know existed. Your questions have illuminated my ignorance (enormous) of every aspect and link of GG's life.

If you read this reply, pls write another comment explaining who the heck all these people in your first comment are/were. I SHOULD know, most people on f_minor already know, but -- for christ's sake, i can barely read sheet music. I just love the noises, and I certainly never attended the Eastman School or anything remotely resembling it.



Anonymous said...

What a chance Glenn Gould had to fall in love and be loved by Cornelia Foss in return
He and she kept their private life private, remaining dedicated to crafting higher art and music, even when caught in deep sadness

What a chance we have to have Golberg variations by Glenn Gould, ultimate art and essence of music
A blessing in life

Emmanuel S. - Paris


Vleeptron Dude said...

Cher et Salut Anonymous Emmanuel S. --

Well, that's if you're in Paris, France. But if you're in Paris, Texas (rent this amazing Wim Wenders movie starring the late Harry Dean Stanton), then Howdy Partner!

Hope you get Vleeptron Dude's reply. The previous commenter condemned everybody for various adult consensual but Biblicly forbidden monkey business. I hope I remember this right, but James Branch Cabbel said (something very close to):

* Of all our regrets, the coldest and most empty are of temptations we have successfully resisted. *

My experience -- long and variegated -- makes me conclude that if you want to make, and are able to make Good Art, you also need Love (preferably with adult human beings) and Passionate Experiences. many of these things, in retrospect, were Big Mistakes, but artists can recycle these in paintings or sonatas.

If you're Paris, France, quel arrondisiment? Come on, tell VD something about yourself? Do you paint or piano?

Merci for the interesting comment. Et merci for not being a rigid puritan about amour and passion and (to lapse into circa 1920 American idiom) Whoopee. (Glenn seems to have had an unhappy puritanical side which is not my favorite facet of The Master.)