Today I was not planning on talking any more about Lukas Foss because after yesterday, I have Foss coming out of my ears. The good news is, The Buffalo News ran my story on the front page! You can read it here and I would be honored if you would.
The paper also let me pontificate about my interview with Foss so I did that here, on our Artsbeat blog.
Anyway, I was not going to talk about Foss any more than I already have. But then I went to a party lastnight and all anyone could do was talk about, you guessed it, Lukas Foss.
The stuff flying around about that guy!
Plus, I get the idea not everyone liked him. I interviewed him that one time, but it was for about an hour, and I liked him, I have to say that. It seemed to me then you could not like him. Which did not surprise me. Classical musicians are usually like that.
But lastnight, I got a taste of the anti-Foss folks. They are out there!
On the bright side it is interesting how current Foss is. I mean, look, he was 86 when he died the other day, and he had not lived in Buffalo for well over 30 years, and still -- still -- here he is being talked about at cocktail parties, as if he were still among us. That is something to be proud of.
Then again maybe it is just Buffalo. We are like that. We never let go of anything or anyone and face it, this town knew Foss better than most towns did.
My favorite Foss story was in this entertaining book by Katie Hafner about Glenn Gould and his piano, "A Romance on Three Legs." I got to review that book for The Buffalo News and I remember writing about this one anecdote. I still cannot get over it.
What happened was, Foss was living in Buffalo because at that time he was Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. And his wife, Cornelia, took off to Toronto to get with Glenn Gould. Listen to my hip-hop language! I never like to pass up a chance to say "get with." That is what I am going to say from now on when people ask me what I was doing in California last year. I am going to say, "I went there to get with Leonard Pennario."
Who would want to get with Glenn Gould? Not my idea of appealing, thank you very much.
But Cornelia Foss did, according to this book, and of course Buffalo gossip bears this out. That is Cornelia Foss pictured above. And here is a painting she did a few years ago that I really like.
Cornelia Foss took the station wagon and the kids, the story goes, and went up to Toronto. And before she left, she and Lukas Foss had it out in their driveway in Buffalo. She told him she was leaving him for Glenn Gould and he started laughing.
"I'm leaving you for Glenn Gould. Why are you smiling?" she asked him.
And he said: "Because I know it won't last. Have a good time. I'll see you next weekend."
Ha, ha! I am not sure I have all the words right but that is the gist of it. It is like something out of a sitcom. When I left Buffalo to go get with Pennario, let me tell you this, the scene in our Buffalo driveway was not nearly as dramatic.
Here is a video of Foss playing Bach's great D minor concerto, a piece I have always been crazy about since I was a kid and got a record of it with Sviatoslav Richter. That is the piece Foss played in Buffalo in 2003, the last time he was here.
So long, Lukas.
You sure made waves!
Mary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words about A Romance on Three Legs.
I wanted to tell you that Cornelia was incredibly gracious when I was writing that part of the book. I even went to New York to visit her and to make sure she was fine with what I had written (she was). I had brought my 13-year-old daughter with me, and Cornelia was especially kind to her. At one point, Lukas came into the living room, and greeted us very kindly. He told Cornelia he was going out for a walk, and after my daughter and I left the building, we passed Lukas on the street. He recognized us instantly, and he broke into a huge smile. My daughter turned to me and said, "I really like Lukas."
I thought you'd enjoy that random little story.
All the best,
Katie Hafner
Katie,
ReplyDelete... such an honor to hear from you! Thank you for reading what I wrote! I sort of let myself have fun with these blogs and I am glad you didn't mind the joking around about Glenn Gould. That part of your book about Gould and Cornelia Foss was very talked about in Buffalo, I have to tell you that. You handled it very well and I like her for being fine with your writing it.
I spoke with Cornelia Foss very briefly when I called Lukas Foss to interview him six years ago. She seemed very gracious. After that she left to go somewhere and a phone kept ringing and Lukas kept interrupting the interview to pick it up and apologize that his wife wasn't there. I liked that about him.
Katie, again, thanks for the note .. I was thrilled to hear from you! Your book was a lot of fun! p.s. I blogged about you yesterday on my Leonard Pennario blog .. hope you don't mind!
Cornelia Foss paintings from 1965-1970 are on Flick.com, 50 paintings, all 18x 23", and a story of her alias nanes. She used various names as well as just Cornelia because she was an independent woman while trying to , as hard as it was, to conect to Glenn Gould,
ReplyDeletelots of info.
Sinceramente, acho essa Cornélia Foss uma mulher sem escrúpulos, tola e exibicionista. Só quis se promover, tentando invadir a privacidade do Mestre da Música Glenn Gould: o maior intérprete de Bach de todos os tempos ...
ReplyDeleteA pintura dessa senhora, em todas as épocas foi sempre pobre e de caráter estritamente mimético, sem originalidade. Um produto sem inspiração. Mímesis para Platão é exatamente a imitação de um modêlo. Poíesis, em oposição à Mímesis, tem a conotação da pura originalidade. Ainda na leitura platônica, Poíesis é o trânsito do não-ser para o Ser ...é a percepção do desvelado. Aquilo que o gênio extrai da Physis; aquele momento capturado de Noêsis que vem à materialidade na real Forma (configuração) da Arte. Kant, diz em sua obra "A Arte do Gênio": ..."O gênio é aquele que dá à arte a regra. E Glenn Gould provou sem sombra de dúvida ser aquele que precipitou ao mundo da música a leitura nova e originária da mais exótica manifestação da arte.
Não consigo entender como essa mulher, tendo um marido como Lucas Foss, um excepcional pianista e pais de seus dois filhos, deixa tudo pra ir morar em Toronto, atrás de um gênio que provavelmente não conseguia nem ao menos vê-la, senão, como uma fã levada aos extremos tentando seduzí-lo ...
Glenn Gould era um homem solitário ... daí, ter deixado as águas dessa tresloucada mulher sem rumo invadir sua nave ... é algo discutido, ou mesmo patológico, acho mesmo que qualquer artista que passa toda a vida entregue a um ideal musical do quilate do Glenn Gould, pode às vezes se equivocar e até participar de algumas experiências sem grandes consequências ...
Não se esqueçam que Glenn Gould ficava horas falando ao telefone com alguém, somente pra expressar o seu encantamento por alguma obra musical ... Ele vivia possivelmente num mundo à parte.
Glenn Gould neste momento, deve estar tocando em algum piano mil vezes mais aperfeiçooado do que os seus Steinways ...
God Bless You!
IAM - Profa. Doctor Zylpha Carvalho Herbert
Agradeço a "Goldman music Blogspot", por ter tido a possibilidade de expressar alguns aspectos de minha opinião sobre essa incontestável farsa construída pela senhora Cornélia Foss, em relação ao grande pianista, regente, escritor, radialista, compositor e filósofo da música Glenn Gould.
ReplyDeleteNo rigor da linguagem da filosofia e da música, reafirmo, como uma pesquisadora da genialidade do artista Glenn Gould, a minha abominação por esse tipo de exibicionista, sensacionalista, que flagrantemente se lançou para Glenn Gould apenas com o intuito de buscar a fama. Mal sabe esta mulher, que esses seus atos impensados, em vez de elevá-la aos níveis cristalinos da arte e possivelmente do amor, diminuiu-a não só como mulher, mas sobretudo como esposa, mãe de família e aprendiz das artes ....
A exemplo do profundo respeito que o discípulo de Jesus João Batista teve pelo seu Mestre, tenho também pelo Mestre da música Glenn Gould. E como João Batista ... eu também não me considero digna de "desatar-lhe as sandálias" ...
Good Bless You!
Profa. Doutora em Filosofia e em Música: Zylpha Carvalho Herbert