I've always considered Glenn Gould to be the greatest instrumentalist in the history of classical music. My reasons for thinking this probably belong on my other blog, so I'll keep them brief here. Basically, it's my opinion that no other artist so thoroughly challenged preconceived notions of the performer's role in written-down music to the degree that he did. He questioned every aspect of music with unparalleled intensity, and while the results (both musically and philosophically) didn't always please everyone, they were never less than fascinating.

OK, to my reason for writing about him on this blog: On Monday evening, I watched the PBS American Masters program, entitled "Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould", which mentioned, along with many other interesting facts about his life, that he was a great lover of Shakespeare. Apparently he enjoyed reading the plays aloud with certain of his friends, and Richard II was both his favourite play and part to perform (for reasons that went unexplained, and which I'll no doubt puzzle over in the days ahead). This led me to add another to the list of the reasons for my continually strengthening belief in the value of reading Shakespeare: Because it is composed of challenging thinking, it leads to more of the same in the lives and works of its readers.