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Eccentric, yes. Terrible?!?!?!?!? No way!

Is it possible that Gould hated Romantic period music because of the percussive tone produced by his very much, baroque style technique?

Gould hated Mozart too.

He didn't hate stuff because of his percussive tone. He hated stuff because he was strange.

But he was great.

Gould had some big Oedipal problem. Composers had to bend to his will.

That is exactly why I've never cared for him. He was absolutely a genius and I'd kill for his ability to play polyphonically, but Gould, was all about Gould. The best thing he did (which was quite a GREAT thing) was to put Bach back in the spotlight where he belongs. Unfortunately, he tainted an entire generation of pianists who tried to imitate him. Some of what I've heard from him leaves me wondering, "what the heck?" I appreciate him and respect his abilities, but he's one pianist I can live without.

Funny......I've never heard anyone who struck me as trying to imitate Gould.

Neither have I.

I hear it all the time. A friend of mine tells the story of a young man playing some Bach for a class they were both in at university many years ago and he'd nailed down practically every nuance he'd heard in Gould's recording of the same work. The professor wasn't, at all, pleased with his performance. The young man exclaimed, "but I played it EXACTLY like Glenn Gould does!" The teacher replied, "I don't like Glenn Gould."

Cool.
But on the other hand, I spent too much of my life trying to imitate Horowitz, as did a few billion other people.

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"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him." -- Yogi Berra

You can buy a piano today with action every bit as light as Horowitz's. It's called a Shigeru Kawai.

Not necessarily. I'm thinking that the generally accepted techniques would work for most people, but some people who are built differently would need something else to work optimally. For example, many people would be fine with a typical diet following the food guide. But smaller people might become overweight if they tried to follow it, and people with faster metabolisms might lose weight. But most people would be fine. If, on the other hand, you tried to recommend a typical muscle builder's diet to everyone...

I think most of us did at one point, or another.

How about an "Imitate Horowitz" competition!

There would need to be several categories:

-- best
-- worst
-- most ridiculous
-- funniest
-- sustaining the greatest degree of injury

Don't forget how the sounds Horowitz was able to create are based on his own orchestral ideas behind them, and how it is a conscious decision to make the enormous fortes, and the extremely soft pianos. There is an element of massive technique behind it...but I'm sure that other top performers could gain that ability if their interpretations required that kind of contrast. Horowitz's ideas about tone colour led to his extremely colourful playing, not just his ability to do so.

The belief that what works for one person will work for everyone is egocentric rubbish. Look at 5 sets of hands and you'll immediately see why. No set of hands is exactly the same, so not all techniques are going to be universal. I'm sure that Horowitz developed many of his ideosynchratic techniques from the time he was a child. Of course the worked for his hands... he spent a lifetime figuring out just what worked for his hands. To just look at his hand position and try to copy it is not really using the same technique.

Ivo Pogorelich

Gosh, I certainly wouldn't. I'd rather have my technique and pass on the injuries.

I wouldn't even if it offered 40 virgins in heaven! Or is that raisins?

This is well said, and I quite agree with you my good mate.

Gould's Bach is always fascinating to hear, though didn't one reviewer comment: his humming would be better served by adhesive tape rather than magnetic tape?

For all that, the only Gould recordings in my collection are of Bach (and not that many), but when he gets around to other composers, sorry, it is not my cup of tea. One evening I heard his Beethoven Op. 28 whilst driving in the car and almost drove off the road.

My sincere apologies -yes, I don't have the barest fraction of his talent- but I'll listen elsewhere for Beethoven, okay?

Very good point imo.
I think Richter could have played anything like Horowitz, if he wanted to.