00:02Don't be frightened Mr. Gould is here, will appear in a moment.
00:08I am not, as you know, in the habit of speaking on any concert except the Thursday night previews,
00:16but a curious situation has arisen, which merits, I think, a word or two.
00:23You are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms-Di Mina Concerto,
00:31a performance distinctly different from any I've ever heard, or even dreamt of, for that matter,
00:37in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms' dynamic indications.
00:45I cannot say I am in total agreement with Mr. Gould's conception.
00:51And this raises the interesting question, what am I doing conducting it?
00:57I am conducting it because Mr. Gould is so valid and serious an artist
01:03that I must take seriously anything he conceives in good faith.
01:09And his conception is interesting enough so that I feel you should hear it, too.
01:17But the age-old question still remains, in a concerto, who is the boss, the soloist or the conductor?
01:30The answer is, of course, sometimes one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved.
01:34But almost always the two manage to get together by persuasion or charm or even threats
01:43to achieve a unified performance.
01:46I have only once before in my life had to submit to a soloist's wholly new and incompatible concept,
01:56and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould.
02:05But this time, the discrepancies between our views are so great
02:13that I feel I must make this small disclaimer.
02:18So why, to repeat the question, am I conducting it?
02:22Why do I not make a minor scandal, get a substitute soloist, or let an assistant conduct it?
02:31Because I am fascinated, glad to have the chance for a new look at this much-played work.
02:38Because, what's more, there are moments in Mr. Gould's performance
02:43that emerge with astonishing freshness and conviction.
02:48Thirdly, because we can all learn something from this extraordinary artist,
02:53who is a thinking performer.
02:56And finally, because there is in music what Dimitri Metropolis used to call
03:00the sportive element, that factor of curiosity, adventure, experiment.
03:08And I can assure you that it has been an adventure this week,
03:13collaborating with Mr. Gould on this Brahms concerto.
03:16And it's in this spirit of adventure that we now present it to you.
03:21Thank you.
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