Friedrich Gulda plays Beethoven Sonata No. 28 in A major Op. 101

[@remomazzetti8757]

Clearly Gulda was one of the greatest interpreters of Beethoven .

[@MrGer2295]

Great performance ! Thanks for sharing!

[@harryandruschak2843]

This pianist is new to me. Great performance. Thank you.

[@AmirAmid]

Harry Andruschak maybe you are new to pianist, he has been around well before you.!

[@harryandruschak2843]

A Amid Maybe so, but..... 1) I've never been able to afford to go to many concerts. 2) I've never been able to afford many records and CDs. 3) The classical music stations do not seem to play his performances when I am listening. 4) Which leaves You Tube, with all its delightful surprises.

[@yusufu9]

There is an outstanding 10 CD box set put out by Membran that usually sells for around $20 online. It features Gulda playing Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin, etc., and also one CD devoted to his jazz music.

[@louise_rose]

Great perfomance of a transitional but very original work. This is clearly pointing forward towards his very last piano sonata, the unique op.111. :)

[@andreamanfredi8212]

...and, at the same time, this sonata points forward towards Schubert (as its interpretation by Richter clearly demonstrates, in my opinion)

[@geuros]

​@@andreamanfredi8212 I think op. 90 points forward to Schubert much more, while op. 101 is basically a "Little Hammerklavier" but only by length, the difficulty is basically the same.

[@OldRabit]

W O N D E R F U L!!!

[@berlinzerberus]

A very 'classical' performance. Style, rhythm and the art of playing subtle notes are so beautiful, it certainly belongs to the lyrical basic character of this Sonata Op. 101. Gulda plays on a very high level, not too loud and NOT just banging out notes as he did sometimes with Beethoven. Very masterful piano playing!

[@JanWeinhold001]

To judge this way about Gulda ".....just banging......", puuh, that's hybris or deafness.

[@JanWeinhold001]

I know it all pretty well, I wouldn't have chosen "just banging", Gulda's sound world tended to be not the most charming, although I doubt that things like that happened uncontrolled. We should keep in mind that he became an adult in the anti-romantic era after WWII with its tendencies to avoid all that could have been "gefühlig". I only heard him live in his later years an then he was beside all presence, rhythmical power also a special kind of sound magician - but I admit in the special Gulda-way....... ;)

[@berlinzerberus]

I am quite surprised here what beautiful sound he could produce in this special Sonata Op. 101. BTW I love Gulda very much, his Bach and Beethoven are wonderful and partly unsurpassed. But as I said, he didnt take care of the piano sound carefully enough sometimes IMO. Probably the reason was, that he also played Jazz with great passion..I dont know!

[@geuros]

@@berlinzerberus oh no, the jazz has nothing to do with that. Every pianist has the idea of the sound in his/her head way before creating the sound. If Gulda played this way it's because he wanted it to sound like this not because he wasn't able to do otherwise.

[@berlinzerberus]

Da der Klang eines Pianisten ein unbewußter Vorgang ist, weil zwischen Vorstellung und Ausführung eine Lücke klafft, kann man davon ausgehen, dass jeder Pianist Klang IST, d.h. sobald er Klänge erzeugt, ist dieser Vorgang im Idealfall so einzigartig, das er nur Demjenigen zugeordnet werden kann, der sie macht. Jazz und der Klang von Jazz gehört mit zu Guldas Persönlichkeit also kommen Elemente von seinem gelieten Jazz rüber in das Terrain seiner geliebten Klassik. Es ist jedoch bekannt, dass die Bandbreite des Klanges beim Jazz nicht so groß ist wie bei der Subtilität der Klassik und dass man das eben bei Gulda manchmal merkt, wenn Sie nur an die Fuge der Sonata op. 106 von Beethoven denken. Also hier spielt das Unterbewusste auch eine große Rolle beim Klavierspielen. Manchmal war er, wie jeder geniale Mensch, etwas leichtfertig und haute in die Tasten, dass es nur so krachte, kümmerte sich nicht so um das Resultat, den Anschlag, aber natürlich war Gulda auch Klang genug, dass die meisten anderen nicht an ihn rühren können, weil er noch um Längen voraus war, selbst wenn er das Klavier malträtierte. Auch ein Kennzeichen von Genies, sie sind nicht unumstritten.

[@rainerlanglotz3134]

Great & flawless playing but still within the standards that were set by Backhaus and Schnabel. When Gulda recorded the sonatas for the third time (for amadeo label) he defined a new standard which IMO lasts into our time. Maybe Sokolov will set the next standard in Beethoven playing for the decades to come.