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From Deutsche Grammophon - Gallons of Gulda on 84 CDs · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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we started this podcast more than a year and
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At this moment, I am staring not just out of
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the window of my studio and looking at this upcoming
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blizzard that is starting to manifest itself,
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but I'm also looking around the room and there's
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a big, big box of CDs that I eventually will
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have to file away among the many piano box sets.
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that are sitting on my shelves. And because everything's
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alphabetized on my shelves, whenever I add a
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box, especially when it's a big box, I have to
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move dozens of other boxes to make room to keep
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the alphabet intact. And if I miscalculate the
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room because of the alphabetizing, then I have
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to go back to the drawing board and refile everything
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again. It's a total pain to do this. But if my
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collection wasn't so well organized, I would
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go totally nuts. I mean, I am totally nuts, but
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you know what I mean. So maybe you remember,
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or maybe you already have in your collection,
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a box set that came out in 2021. It had 41 CDs
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in it. it consisted of the complete DECA recordings
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by the pianist Friedrich Gulde. And this box
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also contained some, but not all, of Gulde's
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releases for the Amadeo label, including his
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Beethoven Sonata Cycle from the late 1960s. I
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suppose that was included as a complement to
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the Beethoven Cycle that he did for DECA in the
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1950s. I wrote the booklet notes for that. 2021
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release. Now, we fast forward several years,
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and now we have, under the banner of Deutsche
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Grammophon, the Friedrich Gulde edition on 84
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CDs, all packaged in original jack -effect similes.
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Essentially, This is Friedrich Gulda's entire
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discography covering all of the labels controlled
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by Universal. Classics Universal Music. So let
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me break it down for you. Let me tell you what
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we have here. The first 14 discs cover Gulda's
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releases that appeared on Deutsche Grammophon.
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Then discs 15 through 50 gather together all
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of the releases originally issued by Amadeo and
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also issued on the MPS label. CDs 51 through
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74 are all those releases that originally appeared
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on Decca on 78s and LPs and in a few cases on
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CD. Discs 75 through 82 are all releases that
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first appeared Discs 75 through 82 are all releases
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that first appeared on Phillips, and these include
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the early 1970s recordings of Bach's Well -Tempered
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Clavier, which actually was an Amadeo production,
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but it did turn up on Phillips in the 1980s,
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so I guess that's why it's in the Phillips section.
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I mean, I have no idea. And then the two final
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discs contain Friedrich Goulda's 1993 recital
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from Montpellier that first appeared on the Accord
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label, and Accord is controlled by Universal.
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My first idea was to go through this box disc
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by disc, David Hurwitz style, taking out big
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clumps of discs and then looking at them in order
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and then saying, okay, Goulda's Chopin Preludes,
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these are good, these are fun to have, but...
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I thought it might be better to follow the trajectory
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of the gramophone review I wrote for this box
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set and to give you an overall perspective because
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that, I think, might be a little more helpful.
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When Gulda signed with Decca, in the late 1940s.
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He was still a teenager, but he seemed to be
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fully formed artistically, and his earliest recordings
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reveal a pianist with strong ideas. In fact,
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some of his earliest Bach recordings have a dryness
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and directness that kind of foreshadow Glenn
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Gould in some ways, and they also foreshadow
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the x -ray clarity and the rhythmic sternness
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of his complete well -tempered clavier from the
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early 1970s that I mentioned a minute ago. But
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Gulda's recording from the late 1940s of the
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Prokofiev Seventh Sonata, which was the work's
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second recording ever is surprisingly effective.
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It's brilliantly played, it's really intelligently
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shaped, and this is quite interesting when you
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consider that this music was relatively new and
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it was only just starting to enter the international
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repertoire. And among Gulda's 78s for Decca include
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some Chopin selections, and the Berceuse, the
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Third Ballade, and the Etudes Op. 25, numbers
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1 and 2, reveal a much more limpid and quote
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-unquote traditional kind of Chopin compared
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to Gulda's relatively forthright e minor concerto
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and his early 50s cycles of the four ballads
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and the preludes opus 28 and there also are live
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chopin preludes opus 28 that appeared on deutsche
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gramophone many many years after the fact i think
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the gulda studio chopin preludes for deco fascinate
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because of their avoidance of a lot of interpretive
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traditions that became cliches. I can give you
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one example. You know, the prelude number 17
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has that introduction of chords. Before the melody
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starts, you have those chords. pianists make
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a retard at the end of those chords, even though
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no retard is written. But Gulda just plays it
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straight. Interestingly, Rudolf Serkin plays
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it straight, so maybe that's the German -Austro
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way of doing it. I don't know. But generally,
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one did not. associate Gulda with Chopin, nor
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with the French Impressionists, but there are
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some interesting Debussy and Ravel performances
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in this box to reckon with. I remember being
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totally thrown for a loop when Phillips reissued
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Gulda's 1950s Decca Debussy and Ravel recordings
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in that Great Pianists of the 20th Century series.
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You remember that? Gulda's Debussy Preludes from
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the early 50s on Decca, I thought, yielded nothing
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in color and nuance to Walter Gieseking's much
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more famous contemporaneous accounts. And I think
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that in some ways they surpassed Gieseking in
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regard to pinpointed accuracy and virtuosic selections
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like what the Westwind saw in Preludes Book One
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or... In book two, Les Tiresse Alternais, un
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feu d 'artifice. Golda's Sweet Burger Mask, I
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think, is one of the most perfectly paced and
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eloquently articulated interpretations that I
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know on disc. but he tends to pedal a little
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too much in Pour le piano and in parts of Ravel's
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Sonatine. Now, Golda's Decca recording of Gaspard
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de la Nuit of Ravel may not be the most diabolical
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interpretation around, but his controlled cool
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and his textural transparency really contrast
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to those hyper -virtuosic performances that we
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hear today from young competition hotshots. And
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there are also some absorbing live performances
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of Gaspar Delanoui with Gulda floating around
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the date from the 1950s. There was a box on the
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Andante label that has a Gaspar Delanoui. I'm
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going to talk about that release in another episode.
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Gulda, by the way, remade the Debussy Preludes
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for MPS or for Amadeo or one of those labels,
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I can't remember. But these later versions were
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kind of dry sonically as well as interpretively,
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and they're in this box set, but I honestly don't
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care for them. However, Gulda's reputation...
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as an interpreter, largely lies within the German
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Austro repertoire with music of Beethoven and
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Mozart. occupying the bulk of this collection.
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Let's get to the Beethoven first. There's the
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cycle of the five piano concertos recorded in
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the early 1970s with the Vienna Philharmonic
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under the direction of Horst Stein. These performances
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are beautifully engineered, although I think
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the interpretations are uneven, and the unevenness
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sometimes occurs within the same work. For instance,
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the fourth concerto has a really brisk and perky
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rondo finale, but The long first movement, by
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contrast, just seemed so bland and uneventful.
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I guess I should talk more about this cycle in
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detail in another episode. And eventually, I
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will have to compare Gulda's two commercial Beethoven
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sonata cycles. One was for Decca, mixing mono
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and stereo recordings, all from the 1950s. And
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then there was the cycle that he re -recorded
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in stereo for Amadeus. in the late 60s. And the
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Amadeo performances generally are tighter and
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harder hitting. Probably that has to do with
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the closer microphone placement. I personally
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prefer the 1953 and 1954 Beethoven Sonata cycle
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that Gulda recorded for German radio that was
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issued on the Orfeo label. Gulda did not like
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these performances as much as I do, but I know
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better. Ha ha ha. But I... guess I'm going to
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have to do an episode doing a three -way comparison
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between the three Gulda Beethoven sonata cycles.
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And there are some standalone singleton Beethoven
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sonata performances in the box. There's also
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a rather closely microphoned Diabelli Variations
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that was on MPS on LP. I kind of remember that.
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I think it turned up on Harmonia Mundi on LP.
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It's kind of dry. and it's really not my favorite
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Diabelli variations, to be honest. The Diabellis
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in the Orfeo box, I think, is much, much better.
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But I should mention, though, that if you want
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to hear Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata... pounded
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out to smithereens. You've got to listen to Gulda's
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Amadeo recording. It's a weird recording if there
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ever was one. And his appassionata is also driven
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to extremes, I think. Now let's talk about Mozart.
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In 1982, Gulda recorded a Mozart sonata cycle
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that never appeared during his lifetime, and
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it only survived. in the form of cassette dubs
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that were made from master tapes, and the master
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tapes are presumably lost. Deutsche Grammophon
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posthumously issued them as the Mozart tapes,
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and in this cycle, Gulda left out that hybrid
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Kershaw 533 -494 sonata, and curiously he omitted
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the Kershaw 309 sonata because he questioned
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its authenticity. Now, it takes a little doing
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to get past pockets of tapis and wow and flutter
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and occasional signal overload. along with very
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close micing that transforms Gulda's Bosendorfer
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grand piano into a strange kind of harpsichord
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piano hybrid. And it has a kind of fuzzy and
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not very appealing patina. this cycle i think
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reveals guldo more as a mozartian rocker rather
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than a mozartian lyric poet and the left hand
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represents a very emphatic rhythm section with
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alberti bases being sculpted and almost pounded
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out with endless variety and the bass octaves
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turn into dramatic devices. And Gulda brings
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out a lot of melodies within decorative passages,
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which is kind of cool. Slow movements are more
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like dances rather than arias. And I think this
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approach is interesting, although it works better
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to listen in small doses. If you listen to three
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or four sonatas in one sitting, you're going
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to get tired. Unfortunately, Gulda plays the
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C minor, Kershaw 457 Sonata, on a Clavinola,
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which is an electronic keyboard, and it has these
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cheesy, sustained, synthesized string sounds,
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and it really turns the music into music. I much,
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much prefer Gulda's conventionally engineered
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Deutsche Grammophon Studio recording of this
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work, which was a... originally coupled with
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the D major, Kershaw 576, and the B flat, Kershaw
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570 sonatas, and this is a really good disc.
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But in general, when it comes to Mozart and Gulda,
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I think his earlier performances are better.
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the Decca versions, for instance, of the A minor
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sonata, Kershaw 310. And I like the Decca version
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of 576 much better than the DG remakes. Some
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of you may know the recording that Gulda made
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in the early 1960s of the C major concerto, Kershaw
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467. You know, the... Elvira Madigan concerto,
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and he played in that recording the slow movements
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right -hand lines in and around the beat, which
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he said was in keeping with the definition of
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rubato, according to Mozart, you know, in Mozart's
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time. It's like a jazz singer who is phrasing
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ahead of and behind the beat, as if Frank Sinatra
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was singing the melody. But when Gulda re -recorded
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467 for Deutsche Grammophon with Claudio Abato
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conducting, he played the movement straight,
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so I guess he abandoned this Frank Sinatra idea.
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I guess he changed his mind over the years, or
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maybe he decided just not to be provocative for
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a change. Who knows? But Gulda's recordings of
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the D minor, 466, and the D major Coronation
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Concerto, Kershaw 537, and the last concerto,
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the one in B flat, Kershaw 595, all with Abato
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and the Vienna Philharmonic, are excellent performances,
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and those have really stood the test of time.
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There are some collaborations in this collection
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that... I should note. For instance, there was
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that famous recital of songs of Richard Strauss
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with the soprano Hilda Gruden. And there was
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a very good Beethoven sonata cycle with Gulda
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and the cellist Pierre Fournier. I actually prefer
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Fournier's Deutsche Grammophon remakes with Wilhelm
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Kempf. And then you have all kinds of mixed recitals
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with very... idiosyncratic programming. For example,
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there was a collection called The Complete Musician.
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It was a five LP set. I think it was on Amadeo.
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I'm pretty sure it was. And for this collection,
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Gulda went into his home studio and simply played
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whatever came into his head without planning,
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from Beethoven and Schubert sonatas to some rather
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rambling improvisations. But this box set contains
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a much wider variety of Gulda's work as a jazz
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pianist, composer, and bandleader that we have
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ever had on CD. And for Gulda, Jazz was not a
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pastime. He was really, really serious about
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it. And he got better and better at jazz over
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the years. So we have in this box set these mid
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-1950s recordings from the New York club Birdland.
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And they show Gulda to be very talented, but
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maybe a little stiff in the idiom. But he soon
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blossomed into a genuine master. His big band
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compositions from the 1960s and 70s reveal really
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formidable mastery and total stylistic absorption
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of the kind of knock -em -dead brass writing
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that you get from, let's say, Maynard Ferguson's
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big band. But you also get the kind of contrapuntal
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sophistication that you hear in George Russell's
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work from the 1950s and early 1960s. There's
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also... a terrific 1964 jazz trio session featuring
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gulda's own compositions and there's a 1971 concert
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where he collaborated on both piano and electric
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piano in duets with his fellow austrian composer
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and pianist colleague fritz power there's also
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this fantastic two -piano concert with Chip Correa
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from 1983, where they really are interacting
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and meshing spontaneously, and sometimes it's
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hard to tell who is playing what. This concert
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has really held up very well, and I think it
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also says a lot that Gulda could recruit big...
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jazz names for his big band projects, because
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you will find participating musicians such as
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Phil Woods, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Mel
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Lewis, J .J. Johnson, and many others. There's
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also a bonus DVD that contains the 1981 concert
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film Solo Flight, and there's a very good 2002
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documentary that's called So What? And also,
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there's a lengthy and very interesting interview
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from 1986 with Gulda speaking with the journalist
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Joachim Kaiser. However, the big question remains,
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do you need all 84 CDs in this box? How often
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you will return to certain discs over others
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is definitely an open question. But there really
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isn't any disputing that... The Friedrich Gulda
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edition does full justice to this complex and
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confrontational and multifaceted and multi -talented
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musician's career and his determination to break
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boundaries. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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guide to piano recordings. And I hope you will
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get a chance to... at least sample this box set.
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I mean, we have gallons of Golda here on 84 CDs.
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Take good care, and I look forward to being with
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you for our next episode.