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Arts feature

The musical benefits of not playing live

Many performers hated playing live. But freed from the stage they often made their best and wildest work, argues Graeme Thomson

18 April 2020

9:00 AM

18 April 2020

9:00 AM

Glenn Gould considered audiences ‘a force of evil’. ‘Not in their individual segments but en masse, I detest audiences.’ He retired from public performance on 10 April 1964, at the age of 31, having given fewer than 200 public recitals. The Canadian classical pianist had longstanding philosophical objections to the ritual of performing live.

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