The Perversity of Genius

Talking of vinyl, one of the most treasured and played-to-death items in my juvenile record collection was a 12in LP of Sviatoslav Richter playing Beethoven's Pathétique and Appassionata sonatas (a concert recording). Today is his birthday - he would be 94 if he were still with us. Here is a bizarre but rather wonderful clip in which Glenn Gould - mysteriously subtitled and voiced-over - recounts how seeing Richter play persuaded him that perhaps, after all, Schubert wasn't entirely 'boring'. Oh the perversity of genius...