There is a misconception among many of his admirers that Gould played only compositions by J. S. Bach. Far from it as Glenn Gould Hereafter, a film directed by Bruno Monsaingeon, reveals to us. Available on DVD, and produced by a host of co-producers too long to mention here, but which include Rhombus Media, the CBC, the BBC and Bravo, this film has a stunning impact. It is, in fact, mesmerizing at times.

Monsaingeon, who worked with Gould years ago while the pianist still recorded, has chosen a visually exciting path to unveil Gould to us in a manner that is often humorous, and gives us a taste of the pianist's wide musical repertoire. As one watches Gould at the piano, one gets this strange sense of seeing a man attempting to become the music he plays. He is totally absorbed into what he plays with an intensity that is almost painful to observe because we enter into a very private world. It is also exhilarating.

The filmmaker re-read thousands of letters that have been sent to him by Gould admirers from across the world ever since he made his first film with the pianist almost 30 years ago. He chose five very different characters from among these letters to "play themselves, but that role would be very precisely circumscribed, and would appear in the credits as members of the 'dramatic personae', as in a stage play," wrote Monsaingeon in the booklet that comes with the DVD. It contains an excellent essay and a good biography of Gould. The choice of characters and the stories they have to tell turns out to be a brilliant move on the part of the director.

These characters come from very different parts of the world, have very different backgrounds, and very different stories to tell about how Gould's playing has affected them. The sixth character is Montaingeon himself while speaking to CBC Radio Two host Eric Friesen (who strangely enough is not identified on the credits or in the booklet) about Gould. And, of course, there is Gould himself.

The recordings we hear range from the three Bs: Bach, Beethoven & Brahms, down the alphabet to Weber. We also get to know Gould as a composer. This latter aspect of the pianist is something, again, that has not been very much in the public's mind and ear. All in all, there are 30 selections of music on this DVD. We see and hear Gould performing alone and with such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin. Monsaingeon, who is a Paris-based concert violinist when he is not a filmmaker, brought together a string quartet in 1991 to perform Gould's String Quartet Op. 1.

Many of us concerned with music have our own stories related to Gould. Mine concerns our sharing a physiotherapist in 1970 and my constant amazement at seeing this man enter the establishment in the height of summer wearing a heavy overcoat, his signatory woolen gloves and a cap. There is a bit of this 'six degrees of separation' going on here. At the time, although I knew well who he was, I had no idea that it would be just a couple of years later that I would begin my journey into music critiquing, and that I would write about him in one newspaper or another on both sides of the border.

Aside from the music and the man, there is the visual of this DVD. Monsaingeon and his crew took breathtaking film of northern Ontario as Gould's Lincoln winds its way up to a cottage on Lake Superior. There the pianist, despite his idiosyncrasies, showed that he was the quintessential Canadian because he spent a great part of his life at this cottage. Actually, it isn't Gould's car, but one like the one he owned, but we hear Gould's voice telling us that he would not have liked to be a 19^th century man as he loves the technology that allows him to have wall-to-wall music, even in his car. Gould loved technology. One wonders what he would have made out of the advancements on the internet and the iPod.

The DVD is available with voice commentary in English and French versions, but also allows the listener to choose subtitles in German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. This is a terrific buy and a DVD worth owning. Even if you are not a Gould lover, it might just turn you into one as you listen to his music and to the man himself.