Review: Friedrich Gulda on Decca--Intriguing As Ever

[@jdistler2]

Hi Dave - Thanks for the shout out about my booklet notes. I think you really hit the nail on the head in your perspective characterization of Gulda's iconoclastic musical personality. It was odd how Decca chose only certain of the Amadeo recordings to include (the Beethoven cycle, the Bach Well-Tempered Clavier), but at least all the the Decca and Philips stuff is here. One, tiny correction that's perhaps not important: The Beethoven Sonata cycle on Decca was not mono only, but rather a mix of mono and stereo. It's variable, but has its moments, such as the excellent 1951 Hammerklavier. And on an unrelated note, watch out for an upcoming box containing Zoltan Kocsis' complete Decca/Philips piano recordings, which I also annotated.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Oh yes, I am looking forward to that!

[@leslieackerman4189]

Jed: Some of us, serious music lovers, read you with respect and much pleasure, the same as watching/listening to David

[@jdistler2]

@@leslieackerman4189 Thank you for your kind words!

[@s.k.angyal3768]

I was wondering the other day what Mr. Hurwitz might think of my favourite pianist Friedrich Gulda and her we go, Thank You so much! His Beethoven cycle with H.Stein is the one I always get back to, my personal reference recording so to speak. I also had the pleasure enjoying him in an unforgettable special piano recital in Salzburg 1995 playing Mozart piano sonatas KV 310, KV 333, KV 457 and KV 576 🎶

[@samlaser1975]

Thanks for the talk about this fascinating personality. I love his Beethoven Sonata cycle (his later one).

[@maxmachado8632]

Thank you for another amazing review Dave! I love Gulda’s work as an interpreter and as a composer and his compositions have brought me a lot of joy lately! Would you consider reviewing the SWR release of the Gulda Symphony and Gulda plays Gulda live in 1971? I would love to hear your opinion on it and I think that a lot of other viewers would to! Take care!

[@carlnilson273]

Hi Dave. Thanks for this great introduction to Friedrich Gulda. I knew nothing of him until yesterday, when I bought a recording of a recital he gave in 1959 (Hänssler Classic). I love the Hayden performances on it. (I haven't listened to the Beethoven works yet.) At a cost of $1 I feel that I really lucked out. As a side note, I also bought a CD of the Berg/Heinrich/Schiff recording of Schubert's Quintet in C. Also for $1! (I read your review of it last night.)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Have fun!

[@tomross5347]

Gulda's Well Tempered Clavier is the perfect version for anyone who likes Glenn Gould's approach in general, but doesn't want to listen to Gould's moaning.

[@kirkpatticalma7911]

I never understood why Gould did that, but, then again I have never played an instrument at the level.

[@murraylow4523]

Dave thanks, I really love Gulda’s recordings, even the ones from the cassettes are marvellous. So glad to hear you like the Amadeo Beethoven sonatas, as someone else has pointed out these are available with the piano concertos very inexpensively under the Decca label. Yes the finale of the Appassionata is too fast, but oh my! When I first heard the first movement of that from him I thought it was nonsense, but by the time I had got to the end of it I immediately wanted to listen to it again. And his opus 111 is really marvellous and keeps a kind of poise going that is really more moving than more emotive traversals. Just holding my hands up in wonder.

[@TheHanslick]

Never before was I able to agree with D.H. more! Gulda is my whole-life love (I have even wrote my thesis on his Beethoven interpretation). I can agree to every word D.H. says in this review. One has, however, to keep in mind, that this is only a fraction of what Gulda did. Ther is a great amount of live recordings that every Gulda´s fan knows about - just look here at his Bonn recital, or Beethoven 5th under Szell. As stated in the review, this box includes just his Decca and Philips recordings. I think I have almost everything Gulda did, so, I am not going to buy the box. I just wonder whether there is a Gulda´s own foreword to his Well-Tempered Klavier included there, since it explains and justifies his approach to his interpretation (Gulda explains, that some preludes were composed with klavier, harpsichord or even organ - all of those were included under one name "clavier". That is what he tries to respect and preserve their character). Thank you again Mr. Hurwitz for this review - you did an excellent job, you really did!

[@122112guru]

love him too.while i can't say the same about his jazz prelude,(after Barber-though not jazz but jazzy)he wrote the best damn accompanying jazz piano fugue ever penned.Keith Emerson thought so as well,featuring it as the Head of his famous 74 piano improvisations.Oh and a nod to lenny's jazz fugue's too.

[@terryfaulkner5062]

Thinking of boxes, I wish that you would review the Bruno Walter box.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I did it for ClassicsToday.com Insiders, so I won't be doing it here, unfortunately.

[@rickcavalla7341]

I like classical and I like jazz, but usually don't like them to mix. However, Gulda's "Symphony in G" is one of my favorite attempts at merging the two. Thoroughly enjoyable but I think it is only available on the SWR (German radio) in-house archive label.

[@michelangelomulieri5134]

The issue of one hundred guns worth: the struggle between forms, consistency vs freedom, imagination in this guy how much affected his pianism? To me this cannot prevent anyone listening to his recordings from recognizing his immaculate capacity to play a piece as though he was composing it along with the composer himself for the first time.

[@salocindejuan9648]

On amazon you can find a very conveniently priced box - new remastering - with all the Beethoven sonatas (recorded in 1968 by Amadeo) and all piano concertos with Horst Stein (recorded by Decca)

[@mmahpeel]

I have always felt Gulda’s Beethoven was quite solid and enjoyable. I will have to check out his Debussy and Ravel as your comments have piqued my curiosity. Also I knew he was a teacher for Argerich (who I was fortunate to see perform just a few short hours ago in Hamburg) but didn’t know about Abbado!

[@grantparsons6205]

A great review Dave. I love Gulda. He's one of those enduring greats who continues to delight over years of listening. Like you, I'm not fond of the jazz...Not to mention the naked concerts ("happenings" in the parlance of the times) preserved on KZbin, God help us! 60 something year old men really should really keep their clothes on!

[@leslieackerman4189]

Before listening to this review, I stopped at Amazon where there is only one review, and it comes from some moron living in Germany. No mention of the music, just his frustration with the covers, to what he gave ONE STAR out of FIVE. Defied belief. So I felt truly validated that you mentioned him.

[@fred6904]

Hello Dave! I would like to ask you to consider to make a talk about recordings of Schubert's piano sonatas and songs. Best wishes Fred.

[@mingyangli9983]

thanks for the review! does this box set have individual album cover?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, only some facsimiles in the booklet.

[@murraylow4523]

As you have enthused me I was listening to Gulda's Beethoven this evening but this nothing a propos of him. As people say the "Les Adieux" sonata has something to do with Mahler 9, it struck me that the opening phrase of the slow movement of the sonata is basically Wagner's Death motif. As with the finale of the Jupiter Symphony, maybe this is just coincidence that people used the tag before, or maybe its just an accident, as various chord sequences come up everywhere. But as its not just Wagner but also Shostakovich, does anyone know if this has been commented on?

[@sandy44440]

With niche pianists in mind, it might be fun to have a video on the Hatto affair ... ?

[@michaelmasiello6752]

Funny how these things go. An iconoclast etc., and yet Gulda was somehow my introduction to the WTK-one of those terrific Phillips twofers. On the subject of classical-meets-jazz, I was wondering if you had any thoughts about Nikolai Kapustin, whose own massive collection of preludes and fugues is such a trip.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Love him. Video to come.

[@tarakb7606]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Very much looking forward to it.

[@classicalromanticist5167]

Hey Dave, I’m a massive fan of you and your content, and I wanted to ask in your opinion what are the best recordings of Mozart’s Requiem?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Please don't' hate me, but I really dislike the piece. It's not high on my "to do" list--just one of my many shortcomings!

[@classicalromanticist5167]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Understood, it’s not for everyone of course! Thanks anyway for your context, as I say I’m a huge admirer.

[@Sulsfort]

It's a shame, that the Well-Tempered Clavier & the Diabelli Variations are missing, although there were issues of that by Universal.

[@renaudgautier3975]

Have to ask: when I search for Gulda complete Decca, I do not find a 47-disc version. I found both a 38-disc box and a 42-disc box....all seem to have the same cover as the one you show. Is the 47-disc set an older version that has now been reissued? The version I find also contains a blu-ray disc of the concerti? I hope you have some insight. Thanks much.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

41 discs on the box. I corrected it in the video and in the description below. Go with the cover. Sorry for the confusion.

[@renaudgautier3975]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Woops. Sorry for missing the info. I thank you much for the reply. So now that I know I'm not missing anything...I'll order it...and I'm sure will have great fun with it.

[@olinwilliams]

You have a great microphone. When the bug zapper went off I thought it was in my room

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thanks. Good to know.

[@davidmblumenstein]

That's the one. "You Can Like That Suck ... Just Admit It." just get this out there, make it available on long-sleeve tee-shirts/jerseys and sweatshirts in a myriad/plethora of colours. Thanks. Yay?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Done. Shop away!