I'm surprised at your concern over my use of the word "we" which obviously
means those of us that see something a certain way.  Your advice to stop
listening to a performer that annoys me goes without saying.  But Gould
for many years, dominated the Bach keyboard music airwaves.  But more
importantly, there are Gould recordings where I don't hear him singing (or
doing so less annoyingly); it's not as simple as you think.  It's precisely
because he's a very good pianist (though there are many pianists that are
"distinguished" and some I like better than Gould) that his mumbling and
humming are particularly annoying and impair my enjoyment of some of his
recordings.

To paraphrase your remarks to me, if you don't think the performing of Bach
works calls for a "respectful silence from the performers and listeners"
don't show that respect.  Bach's music, as far as I know, doesn't include
scoring for incessant humming from the keyboard-ist.  Your suggestion that
his humming is "irrelevant" to the quality of his work is demonstrably
absurd.

The observation that Serkin also hummed "is" irrelevant because it must
have been done un-intrusively; this is the first time I've heard that
Serkin hummed.  Obviously, Serkin was respectful of the music.

John P.