David Lang

Composers: David Lang
Compositions: The Loser
Performers: Rod Gilfry bar, Conrad Tao p, Bang on a Can Opera Ensemble, Lesley Leighton cond
Catalogue Number: Cantaloupe CA21155

In the year following Glenn Gould’s early death (1983), the acclaimed Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard published the novella The Loser which had the pianist as one of its trio of protagonists. In allowing for artistic licence, Bernhard’s Gould holds many similarities with the historical man. Here, Gould comes across as a sort of Nietzschean Übermensch to be placed on a level with Mann’s Adrian Leverkühn and the work is equally influenced by Kafka and Joyce. The work focuses...