Gulda's gold.

[Bryn]

Rather than continue to subvert the BaL Beethoven Op. 7 thread, I thought I'd start another regarding Friedrich Gulda.

So, carrying on from his 1970 recording of Beethoven's Op. 120, and the way he whips through it in under 45 minute, how about his Schubert B flat Sonata D960, an ORF recording on ANDaNTE. Gulda was noted for avoiding performing Schubert, indeed, when asked why he did not play Schubert he is said to have responded in his thick Viennese dialect "Da kan i mi ja glei umbringan", ("Then I might just as well kill myself!"). He polishes off D960 in all of 30' 46".

[verismissimo]

Stimulated by the Gulda discussions on another thread, I picked up an LP copy of his Mozart concertos 25 and 27 with VPO/Abbado from 1976 at Oxfam. What playing!

[Roehre]

What playing, and what a jazzy cadenzas (which didn't please the critics in those days I'm afraid)

[verismissimo]

Interesting obit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2000/...dianobituaries

[Bryn]

The Orfeo Beethoven box arrived a few minutes ago. Pretty quick delivery for this time of year. It was only last Friday I ordered it from Harmonia Mundi via the amazon.co.uk marketplace. They posted it the same day. I may be away from the computer for a little while.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Orfeo Beethoven box arrived a few minutes ago. Pretty quick delivery for this time of year. It was only last Friday I ordered it from Harmonia Mundi via the amazon.co.uk marketplace. They posted it the same day. I may be away from the computer for a little while.

Very much looking forward to your reactions, Bryn.

[Bryn]

This can only be an initial reaction, of course, but having listened to Op. 7 and the first few variations of Op. 120 (not quite as swift as his 1970 recording on HM but still pretty fast), I am astounded not only by the playing, but the very high quality of the transfers. It is difficult to believe that Op. 7 was recorded in the autumn of 1953, and that the transfers are themselves derived from 15 i.p.s. copies of the original 30 i.p.s. masters (at least, that's what I understand from the booklet notes, which are in general very informative). It seems I was wrong to refer to them as ORF recordings. The Variations and Op. 126 are, but the sonatas were recorded by the Viennese radio station RAVAG, under Soviet control at the time.

I would urge anyone who appreciates Gulda's pianism to get hold of this set. Not necessarily as their first Gulda Beethoven survey, but certainly as a supplementary view from an earlier stage in his career. At less than £4.50 for each well filled disc, (if bought from Harmonia Mundi via the amazon.co.uk marketplace), you can't really go wrong.

[Panjandrum]

At less than £4.50 for each well filled disc, (if bought from Harmonia Mundi via the amazon.co.uk marketplace), you can't really go wrong.

£4.50 a disc. That's a bit steep these days isnt it?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Works-Igor-Stravinsky-22cd/dp/B000PTYUQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1292256907&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jacqueline-Du-Pr%C3%A9-Complete-Recordings/dp/B000V9P4YM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292256984&sr=1-1

[Bryn]

£4.50 a disc. That's a bit steep these days isnt it?

Not when you consider what a poor job Sony did of the Stravinsky transfers, leaving whole chinks out of several of the recordings, despite their having been re-issued several times with those very same entirely correctable errors, and that a lot of diligent work has clearly gone into the Gulda transfers issued by Orfeo. EMI had simply to bundle its du Pré recordings into a single box and give them yet another milking.

[Panjandrum]

Not when you consider what a poor job Sony did of the Stravinsky transfers, leaving whole chinks out of several of the recordings

To these ears the 1950s and 60s CBS recordings have come up as fresh paint, completely belying their age. Perhaps you would care to point out where these chinks are so that I can have a closer listen?

[Bryn]

Well, for a start, there's around a minute and a half that's been unceremoniously deleted from Movements for Piano and Orchestra. It was there in the original LP release but has never appeared in any of the several CD issues. Mind you, careful listening to that original LP issue reveals quite few takes were involved, and not all the original edits were entirely clean. That is the most glaring example, but there are others. It's a while since I listened to the whole set, but each time it was the topic of discussion on the old BBC Radio 3 boards, someone would mention yet another recording in the set which had dodgy edits, including missing first notes etc. I have tried raising the problem retarding Movements with Sony, but they don't even have the decency to acknowledge the communication, let alone respond with an explanation or apology. The majority of the recordings have come up pretty well, but since they have appeared several times not in CD format, it is pretty inexcusable that works such as Movements for Piano and Orchestra remain represented by bodged transfers.

[Bryn]

My previous comments notwithstanding, I would encopurage anyone who has not already invested in the 22 disc Stravinsky set to check out either hmv.com or amazon.co.uk, both of whose current price of £15.99 including p&p. With the exception of the poor editing problems which mess up Movements for Piano and Orchestra and someother works, the transfers are pretty good, and many of the recordings included have never been surpassed, as far as I'm concerned.

[Barbirollians]

I had always rather steered clear of Friedrich Gulda - largely due to Nigel Kennedy based suspicions of classical musicians who go on about jazz let alone go off to be a jazz musician.

More fool me - whilst looking for recordings made by Horst Stein , having like EA and Michael Kennedy , been impressed by his Alpensinfonie I came across the cycle of Beethoven piano concertos recorded by Gulda in the early 1970s for Decca - strangely despite being with none other than the VPO and Stein it was originally issued at medium price . Goodish reviews in Gramophone at the time and then very positive reviews for the reissues by Richard Osborne when on the Decca Jubilee label in the late 1970s .

What a fabulous set of performances - briefly available on Brilliant now on a German Decca release for about £13- a very fresh non- monumental Fifth . His influence on Argerich evident from his playful First and Second and a performance of the Fourth Concerto that is quite wonderful especially in the slow movement . Just the Third to listen to and a couple of sonatas thrown in.

The accompaniment is excellent too - how it tells to have a great orchestra in these works and sensitively conducted. It sounds like a real partnership .

[verismissimo]

Now for the sonatas, Barbs! So, so good.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks to this thread I have followed up with the 2CD set of Gulda with the VPO and Abbado in K466,467,503 and 595.

A mixture of cadenzas with Mozart, Hummel and Beethoven also involved . I was not troubled by Gulda's own at all . I found these recordings vastly preferable to the recent Gramophone editors choice of Anderszweski in K 503 and K 595 . Indeed, I think this is now much my favourite recording of K503.