 First edition | |
| Author | Thomas Bernhard |
|---|---|
| Original title | Der Untergeher |
| Translator | Jack Dawson, with afterword by Mark M. Anderson |
| Country | Austria |
| Language | German |
| Genre | Novel, monologue |
| Publisher | Suhrkamp Verlag (Germany) Alfred A. Knopf (US) |
Publication date | 1983 |
Published in English | 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 190 pp |
| ISBN | 0-394-57239-4 (Vintage Books USA, new edition 2003) |
| OCLC | 232720765 |
The Loser is a novel by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in German in 1983.
The novel does not take place at the time of the events recounted, but at the time its narrator recalls them. There are three main characters: the narrator (who is the only survivor), Glenn Gould, who died a natural death at fifty-one, and Wertheimer who committed suicide some time later. The novel consists almost entirely of recollections and ruminations relating to the relationships between the three. Wertheimer and the narrator were students in a piano class taught by Vladimir Horowitz at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1953, where they met Gould, then a young Canadian piano prodigy.
In Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1953 the main characters meet a young Canadian prodigy who plays the Goldberg Variations miraculously and who, they quickly come to realize, is a greater pianist than even their teacher—indeed, "the most important piano virtuoso of the century," as the narrator puts it in the novel's opening sentence.
The encounter with Gould affects both characters decisively for almost three decades, as they experience an endless series of personal and intellectual travails. Gould’s talent triggers the suicidal tendencies of his two colleagues: so great is the impact of Gould's genius on the other two that, even as it nourishes them, it destroys them: they realize that Gould represents an artistic ideal to which they cannot hope to aspire. So the narrator eventually decides to give up the piano in favour of philosophy, and spends much of his subsequent time composing a rambling, never-completed essay entitled "About Glenn Gould". Wertheimer, who had been a very promising virtuoso himself, follows suit, abandoning music and moving into the "human sciences", the meaning of which is left vague. Eventually, Wertheimer's behaviour becomes more and more erratic and self-destructive; he alienates all his friends, and tyrannises his devoted sister. It is Gould who, with his "ruthless and open, yet healthy American-Canadian manner" first calls Wertheimer, to his face, "The Loser" ("Der Untergeher"—a much more evocative word, lit. "the one who goes under"). As Wertheimer comes to see the accuracy of this epithet, he gradually loses his grip on life. [1]
Bernhard and Gould never met in real life; however, Gould did play twice in Salzburg: the Bach D Minor Concerto with Dimitri Mitropoulos on 10 August 1958, and a Sweelinck-Schönberg-Mozart-Bach recital on 25 August 1959.
The novel is written in the form of a continuous first person interior monologue, with no paragraph indentations and a high number of run-on sentences, obsessive repetitions, unexplained uses of italics, and alienating leaps (without transition) from verb tense to verb tense. [1]
The Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned a one-act chamber opera by David Lang based on the novel, which had its premiere in September 2016. [2]
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian classical pianist. He was among the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music.
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, violinist, and theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756).
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is a 1993 Canadian biographical anthology film about the pianist Glenn Gould, played by Colm Feore. It was directed by François Girard, with a screenplay by Girard and Don McKellar.
Ruggiero Ricci was an American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini.
François Girard is a French Canadian director and screenwriter from Montreal. Born in Saint-Félicien, Quebec, Girard's career began on the Montreal art video circuit. In 1990, he produced his first feature film, Cargo; he attained international recognition following his 1993 Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, a series of vignettes about the life of piano prodigy Glenn Gould. In 1998, he wrote and directed The Red Violin, which follows the ownership of a red violin over several centuries. The Red Violin won an Academy Award for Best Original Score, thirteen Genie Awards and nine Jutra Awards.
Ervin Nyiregyházi was a Hungarian and American pianist and composer. After several years on the concert stage in the 1920s, he descended into relative obscurity before briefly reemerging in the 1970s. His highly distinctive playing style, which has been seen by some as linked to the kind of Romantic pianism associated with Franz Liszt, divided critical opinion.
Petronel Malan is a South African concert pianist based in the United States.
Friedrich Ludwig Dülon was one of the most prominent and famous flute-virtuoso musicians of the Classical era, being one of the first flutists to be considered gifted on Western concert flute. At the age of 40 he had acquired more than 300 concerts in his repertoire. Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart devoted a 9-verse poem entitled The blind flute player Dülon on the journey.
Bach: The Goldberg Variations is the debut album of Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. An interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, the 1956 record launched Gould's career as a renowned international pianist, and became one of the most well-known piano recordings. Sales were "astonishing" for a classical album: it was reported to have sold 40,000 copies by 1960, and had sold more than 100,000 by the time of Gould's death in 1982. In 1981, a year before his death, Gould made a new recording of the Goldberg Variations, sales of which exceeded two million by the year 2000.
The New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962, is widely regarded as one of the most controversial in the orchestra's history. Featuring a performance by Glenn Gould of the First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms, conducted by its music director, Leonard Bernstein, the concert became famous because of Bernstein's remarks from the podium prior to the concerto. Before Gould performed, Bernstein disassociated himself from the interpretation that was to come, describing it as "unorthodox" and departing from Brahms' original tempi. Gould, for his part, claimed publicly to be in favor of Bernstein's remarks.
Siegfried Mauser is a German pianist, academic and music manager. In 2016, 2017, and 2018, German courts convicted him as a multiple sex offender.
Kit Armstrong is an American classical pianist, composer, organist, and former child prodigy of British-Taiwanese parentage.
Correction is a novel by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in German in 1975, and first published in English translation in 1979 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Woodcutters is a novel by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in German in 1984. A roman à clef, its subject is the theatre and it forms the second part of a trilogy, between The Loser (1983) and Old Masters (1985) which deal with music and painting respectively. Its publication created an uproar in Austria, where it became a bestseller before a defamation lawsuit by the composer Gerhard Lampersberg resulted in a court order to pulp the remaining copies; Lampersberg, a former friend of Bernhard's and the model for the character Auersberger, subsequently dropped the suit.
Yes is a novel by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in German in 1978 and translated into English by Ewald Osers in 1992.
Norman Shetler is a pianist, puppeteer and puppet constructor, and piano professor. Originally from America, he now lives in Austria.
Ziyu He is a Chinese violinist. In 2011, he moved to Salzburg, Austria. At the age of 15, he won the 2014 Eurovision Young Musicians. He also won the Menuhin Competition in 2016.
Robert Scholz was an Austrian-born American pianist, conductor, composer and teacher. He achieved fame as a pianist, especially in Austria during the Twenties and Thirties in a piano duo with his brother Heinz Scholz with whom he also published the first authoritative collection of Mozart’s works for piano. After emigrating to the United States in 1938 he became a well-known conductor and founder of the American Chamber Orchestra in New York. In 1963 the US State Department invited him to teach in Taiwan as part of a scholarly exchange program. Here he achieved lasting fame as a conductor and especially as the founding father of Taiwan's piano tradition. Most influential piano professors in Taiwan today can trace their roots back to his teachings. He died in Taipei in 1986.
The Mozarteum International Summer Academy goes back to its beginnings in the summer of 1916 and has borne its current name since 1947. Today, more than 80 masterclasses are held annually. These are run by teachers of the Mozarteum University Salzburg and selected, internationally renowned artists and are attended by 800–1000 young musicians from all over the world.
The Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4 is a 1973 album by the Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. It was Gould's fourth album of five dedicated to Mozart's piano sonatas. It includes the Sonata No. 11 In A Major, K. 331; Sonata No. 16 In C Major, K. 545; Fantasia No. 3 in D Minor, K. 397; and Sonata No. 15 in F Major, K. 533/K. 494.
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