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Book Shelfby Pamela MarglesA Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould'sObsessive Quest for the Perfect Pianoby Katie HafnerMcClelland & Stewart272 pages, photos;$27.95In yet another look at theobsessions that plaguedGlenn Gould, the focusthis time is not on his eccentricitiesor his mentalstate but where it mattersmost - his musicmaking.American journalistKatie Hafner looksat Gould's lifelong search for the perfect piano.She tells how, after much frustration, he finallyfound his ideal instrument in 1960, sitting neglectedbackstage in Toronto's Eaton Auditorium.He worked with his expert piano technicianVerne Edquist to make adjustments, andended up with the light, responsive action herequired for his distinctive sound. Hafnermakes it clear how important this piano, aSteinway known as CD 3 18, became forGould's creative output. In fact, he made thebulk of his recordings - over ninety - on it.Jn 1971 Gould had CD 318 shipped to a recordingsession in Cleveland. He ended upcanceling the session, but the piano arrivedback in Toronto with a split soundboard andcracked iron plate. Edquist was the first one toexamine the badly damaged piano, and Hafnerdescribes in detail what he found. We realizehow heart-breaking Gould's ultimately fruitlessefforts to restore the piano were, and howemotionally stressful it was for him to find anotherpiano to replace it.But given the number of interviews Hafnerundertook, according to her notes, there 's surprisinglylittle other new material here. There isnot enough - new or revisited - to fill a book,so Hafner gets sidetracked into topics like pianomanufacture, Edquist's early life, andGould's love affair with Cornelia Foss, all ofwhich, while interesting, have little to do withher story.Hafner includes a bibliography, but her referencesare at best spotty, and many directquotations have no citations whatsoever. Oneparagraph starts out, "All ofEdquist's tinkeringeventually created an instrument that wasso jittery it got what can only be described asthe hiccups." At the end of the same paragraphshe writes that eventually Gould " startedreferring to the extra notes - the " hiccups" -as his "friends"." Who is she quoting here -herself? Gould? Edquist?At least Hafner doesn't revisit Gould's childhood,which has been covered many times bywriters more elegant and insightful than she.Her breezy style, peppered with phrases like"popped up all over the place", tends towardshyperbole. From what I know of Edquist, whowas my piano tuner for a number of years, hewould appreciate being described, justly, as amaster piano technician, but would never claimto be the "genius" Hafner calls him.This book seems to be sending a message thatwe now have enough books on Gould. Clearlyit's time to concentrate on his recordings.Mozartby Hermann AbertYale University Press1543 pages;$55.00 usAlthough Gennan musicologistHennann Abert'sbiography of Mozart hasbeen widely consideredthe most substantialstudy of the composerMozartI· i =,t,1Arll. ,\C[IITsince its publication eighty years ago, thismarks the first time it has been translated intoEnglish. Abert initially planned to revise OttoJahn's important four-volume mid-19"' centurystudy of Mozart, but instead ended up producinga new work altogether.Abert shows how inseparable Mozart's lifeis from his music by interspersing studies ofMozart's works with chapters on his life. Herightly gives primacy to the rich trove of Mozart'sletters that survives (still not fully translatedinto English).The Mozart Abert presents is far more appealing- and convincing - than the idiot savantdepicted by confections like the popularfilm Amadeus. His Mozart is a sensitive, affable,spontaneous, yearning, anguished, innocent,emotionally complex, imaginative andgentle soul. With psychological insight, Abertvividly shows how all these qualities are expressedin each of Mozart's works. " For him,"he writes, "form was not a fixed pattern ordead letter: rather, it was something that wascreated and new with each new work, a livingforce inexplicably bound up with him and hisinner life".Nor is Mozart here the helpless incompetentoften depicted. Abert credits Mozart with controlover his own destiny, tragic though it mayultimately be. He shows how Mozart's problemswith money and recognition arose fromthe same non-judgmental credulousness whichmade him able to create such great operaticcharacters. In contrast to many of today'sscholars, Abertis quite sympathetic to Mozart'sfather, Leopold, and much less so to hiswife, Constanze. Important musical figures ofthe time like Paisiello are given the deservedattention they rarely get.Jn his introduction, editorC!iffEisen callsAbert's chapter on Mozart's personality theheart of this book, but for me that descriptionbelongs to the following chapter on Mozart'screativity, where Abert describes how Mozart,who composed away from the keyboard, becamea different person when improvising atthe keyboard. Eisen has provided invaluableindexes, bibliography and musical examples.His marvelous footnotes are easily accessibleat the bottom of each page, and musical examplesabound. Stewart Spencer has translatedthis mammoth work into thoroughly enjoyableEnglish, leaving no trace ofit being a translation.The Cellist of Sarajevoby Steven GallowayKnopf Canada272 pages; $29.95Once a day, a cellist perfonns Albinoni 's Adagioin G minor in the bombed-out Sarajevomarketplace where twenty-two people havejust been massacred.The cellist's brave actof defiance, whichleaves him exposed tothe snipers positioned inthe hills above the city,provides a focus for thethree main characters inCanadian writer StevenGalloway's new novel.A sharp-shooterknown as Arrow, recruitedfrom her universitytarget shooting team, has been assigned toprotect the cellist. Kenan, who had been anaccounting clerk, risks his life to get water forhis family and an unlovable old neighbour. Dragan,whose family escaped Sarajevo before thesiege started, tries to get to his job at a bakerywithout getting shot.Galloway builds up layers of vivid imageslike that of Kenan crossing a bridge right afterwatching his friend shot on the bridge. The effectof the cellist's music is expressed literallywhen Arrow watches a sniper set himself up toshoot the cellist, but just sits, mesmerized bythe music, instead offiring.Although the cellist in Galloway's story remainsnameless, he is practically inseparablefrom the actual cellist of Sarajevo, a mannamed Vedran Smailovic, who, like the unnamedcellist, had been principal cellist of theSarajevo Symphony Orchestra before the civilwar that tore the former Yugoslavia apart. Gallowayattempts to clarify the line between factand fiction by writing in an afterword that theactions ofSmailovic " inspired this novel, but Ihave not based the character of the eel list onthe real Smailovic." His disclaimer, however, isnot only unconvincing but disingenuous, especiallywith the famous photo from 1992 ofSmailovic playing amidst the ruins right on thebook-jacket. Even ifhe is not identified byname in the photo credits, it's clear who he isand what he represents. In any case, Gallowaydoes not really describe what he calls the characterof the cellist enough for us to make anydistinction. It is his actions that matter.Choppy phrases and sentences like, "Arrowknows that twenty-two people died here, and amultitude were injured, will not walk or see ortouch again. Because they tried to buy bread.A smal I decision. Nothing to think about." canget tedious. But much more frequent are elegant,flowing passages like this description ofKenan's despair, "There are times when hedoesn't know how he manages not to evaporate,how his clothes don 't fall to the floor,emptied of what little substance he was fillingthem with." Moving images like that stayedwith me long after I finished reading this novel.JULY 1 - S EPT 7 <strong>2008</strong>WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM53
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