Friedrich Gulda – The Gulda Touch, Vol. 3 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:03:40 minutes | 325 MB | Genre: Classique
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Classic
The Symphony in G presented here was only discovered in the SWR archives in the course of research for the Gulda series published by SWR music. Until then, nothing was known about the existence of this work; there is no indication of a commission or a special occasion for which this symphony could have been written. This is the world premiere of a work that has never been heard in the studio outside of the recording made on 20 November 1970. Gulda’s symphonic work is closer to the orchestral pieces of jazz composers Gil Evans and Claus Ogerman than to the classical-romantic tradition. Around 1970, Gulda gave concerts with (almost) exclusively his own compositions, including at the Heidelberg Jazztage in 1971. These works are not playable without improvisational knowledge, in order to, in Gulda’s words, ‘keep them away from the incompetents’.
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Friedrich Gulda – The Gulda Touch, Vol. 1 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 59:27 minutes | 307 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Classic
Friedrich Gulda (* May 16, 1930 in Vienna; † January 27, 2000 in Weißenbach am Attersee) was an Austrian pianist and composer.
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Friedrich Gulda – The Gulda Touch, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:29 minutes | 302 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Classic
Gulda began playing the piano at the age of seven. In 1942 he began music studies with Bruno Seidlhofer (piano) and Joseph Marx (music theory and composition) at the Vienna Academy of Music, now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. At the age of 16, he succeeded at the Geneva International Music Competition and quickly rose to world fame thereafter. His extremely precise interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven, which are particularly faithful to the original works, are still considered milestones in the history of interpretation. Characteristic of Gulda is his extremely precise and rhythmically accentuated playing.
His repertoire included works by J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel, with his interpretations of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier causing a particular stir. In his concerts, he often played works by Bach faithfully on a clavichord.
Gulda had an excellent memory. He needed, for example (as workshop participants report), to look at the musical text of Robert Schumann’s “Forest Scenes” for only a few minutes before playing the work from memory.
One of Gulda’s most famous students is the Argentine pianist Martha Argerich.
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Münchner Philharmoniker & Friedrich Gulda – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 26, “Coronation” (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:23 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MUNCHNER PHILHARMONIKER GBR
During his years in Vienna, Mozart wrote a series of keyboard concertos in which the soloist faces off for the first time against an orchestral part of symphonic aspirations. The famous D minor Concerto reveals this to particularly impressive effect, its dark passion and drama setting it apart from the rest of the series. The popular “Coronation” Concerto is geared more to the brilliance of its keyboard writing and impresses, rather, by dint of its radiance and charm. These two contrary works are at the same time quite complementary, in the sense that they portray the spectrum of Mozart’s art: drama and passion, glamour and grace.
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Friedrich Gulda, Orchester des Wiener Staatsoper – Mozart: Piano Concertos 21 & 27 (1963) [Japan 2016]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 55:53 minutes | Front/Rear covers | 2,26 GB
or FLAC Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear covers | 1,19 GB
Mozart was certainly among the “domestic deities” of Viennese pianist Friedrich Gulda. He repeatedly played Mozart’s piano music in his concerts and had it recorded. In so doing, this classically-trained musician, who had already played successfully in jazz bands at a young age, ignored the strict limits imposed by genres: he wanted to show audiences that there are no distinctions between musical styles whenever good music is played honestly and conscientiously. This Japanese reissue of Mozart’s Piano Concertos 21 & 27 features the 96kHz/24bit DSD Mastering from the analog master tape.
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Friedrich Gulda, Wiener Philharmoniker & Claudio Abbado – Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 25 & 27 (1974/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:10 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
The year 1786 was one of Mozart’s most fruitful, full of diverse works in his most mature vein. It was crowned with the production of the C major Concerto, K. 503, and the “Prague” Symphony. This concerto is the last of the series in C major, and combines with its companion K. 491 in C minor, which in turn succeeded the A major K. 488, to make a trilogy that has been likened to the three great symphonies of two years later. Whatever the family similarities between the other pieces may be, there is no doubt that the C major Concerto, like the C major Symphony, show Mozart glorying in the complete mastery of means and offering a certain Olympian grandeur that at the same time does not exclude his more tender, eloquent vein.
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Friedrich Gulda & Albert Golowin – Donau so Blue (1970/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 39:07 minutes | 700 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS Classical
The title piece, „Donau So Blue“, is a blues on which Austrian pianist-composer Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) is accompanied by two seasoned jazz musicians: Hans Rettenbacher on bass and Manfred Josel on drums. Gulda felt himself to be an outsider in the jazz world. He was a renowned Mozart and Beethoven interpreter, but did not want to be tied down to the world of classical music. And who was the singer Albert Golowin? Gulda describes him as “a dropout, a certain type of Viennese, a highly talented dilettante, a bungled baritone with an aversion to the concert hall.” Actually, Golowin was a pseudonym that Gulda used for singing performances. The pianist was celebrated as brilliant and criticized as infant terrible. Often, Gulda would not stick to the announced program; once he performed playing the recorder naked.
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Friedrich Gulda feat. Klaus Weiss – It’s All One (1970/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 39:16 minutes | 718 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS
Amazing stuff – and one of the hippest records ever cut by pianist Friedrich Gulda! Unlike some of his other more modernist efforts, this one’s got a really free swing to it – and it features a spare stripped-down approach that has Gulda’s work on piano and ‘electra piano’ backed only by the drums of Klaus Weiss. If you know Weiss’ playing, you’ll know that he’s a heck of a player – one of the hardest swinging players in Germany during the 70s, with a rich range of styles that included funk, soul jazz, and hard bop playing. The best numbers on the album feature Gulda playing these amazing lines on ‘electra piano’, with Weiss grooving underneath – either hitting a modal groove, a bossa one, or in some cases a freer beat to match Gulda’s solos. The record kicks off with the four-part ‘Suite For Piano, Electra Piano, & Drums’ – which has two great groovers, the ‘bossa nova’ and ‘finale’ section’. Side two features the more avant ‘Meditation III’, plus the excellent ‘Blues Fantasy’, which starts out free, then rolls into a great modal funky part with great electric keyboard lines!
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Friedrich Gulda – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:26 minutes | 2,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Friedrich Gulda is known to all. He is the musical wizard with the embroidered cap, an artist who is equally at home in jazz, the Viennese lied, or the works of the Viennese Classic. Gulda might have only performed a small number of his Austrian compatriot’s 27 piano concerto ? but with these few he certainly created a sensation. That the present recording of the Concertos Nos. 20 and 21, even after 25 years, is still regarded as ranking among the very best performances is something that can be heard after just a few bars. The minor-key first movement of No. 20 begins with a measured tempo and precise articulation, then the piano joins in with almost sober clarity and proceeds to lead a concentrated, tightly enmeshed conversation with the orchestra.
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Friedrich Gulda – Ineffable: The Unique Jazz Piano Of Friedrich Gulda (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:38 minutes | 789 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy
Friedrich Gulda, who first attempted to play in a jazz setting in the mid-’50s after firmly establishing his classical career, is on far stronger ground on this Columbia LP recorded in early 1965. Gulda’s chops are very much in evidence throughout the sessions. In spite of the fact that he had not previously worked with bassist Bob Cranshaw, the two hit it off immediately, while drummer Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath had recently completed a tour with the pianist. His very deliberate approach to a standard like ‘I’ll Remember April’ is rather refreshing, while he’s also up to the challenge of jazz works such as J.J. Johnson’s ‘Lament’ (played as a solo) and Jimmy Heath’s waltz-time ‘Ineffable.’ Gulda’s jaunty hard bop vehicle ‘The Horn and I’ and his Art Tatum-like ‘Quartet’ are among his more memorable compositions. Briefly available in the mid-’60s, this excellent album will not be easy to locate.
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Friedrich Gulda – Bach – Gulda – Clavichord (The Mono Tapes) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:15 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
Once you open this album on Qobuz, you are in danger of being thrown into an abyss of perplexity. But once you get over the initial surprise, you may find yourself asking if you’ve been had: if you’re the butt of a joke by Friedrich Gulda, who has pawned his concert Steinway for a badly-tuned Japanese koto. But it’s “just” Gulda playing Bach on a clavichord that seems to be buckling under pressure or thanks to funny sound engineering. And then, slowly, it works its charms on us, and we are willing participants in a sound-test by Friedrich Gulda on a mean instrument that he seems to be really beating up on, distorting the strings, trying to get at sounds that the humble clavichord really isn’t made for. It’s as if we’ve snuck in to grin at the sight of this musician playing extracts from the Well-Tempered Clavier on an instrument which is anything but. Recorded at home, or at a concert at the end of the 1970s, these records, now out in the light of day, bear witness to the pure-musical research of an artist who has never stopped questioning and pushing at the boundaries of musical convention. – François Hudry
Read more![Friedrich Gulda - Beethoven & Haydn: Piano Works (Live) (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/07/f4kjipvpwlruc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Friedrich Gulda – Beethoven & Haydn: Piano Works (Live) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:28 minutes | 670 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Archipel
Friedrich Gulda (* 16. Mai 1930 in Wien; † 27. Jänner 2000 in Weißenbach am Attersee) war ein österreichischer Pianist und Komponist.
Gulda begann im Alter von sieben Jahren mit dem Klavierspiel. 1942 nahm er eine Musikausbildung bei Bruno Seidlhofer (Klavier) und Joseph Marx (Musiktheorie und Komposition) an der Wiener Musikakademie, der heutigen Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, auf. Mit 16 Jahren reüssierte er beim Internationalen Genfer Musikwettbewerb und gelangte danach rasch zu Weltruhm. Seine äußerst exakten, um besondere Werktreue bemühten Mozart- und Beethoven-Interpretationen gelten bis heute als Meilensteine in der Interpretationsgeschichte. Charakteristisch für Gulda ist ein äußerst präzises und rhythmisch akzentuiertes Spiel.
Sein Repertoire umfasste Werke von J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy und Ravel, wobei vor allem seine Interpretationen der Klaviersonaten Beethovens und des Wohltemperierten Klaviers von Bach Aufsehen erregten. In seinen Konzerten spielte er Werke Bachs häufig originalgetreu auf einem Clavichord.
Gulda hatte ein hervorragendes Gedächtnis. Er brauchte sich zum Beispiel (wie Workshopteilnehmer berichten) den Notentext von Robert Schumanns „Waldszenen“ nur wenige Minuten lang anzuschauen, um das Werk dann auswendig zu spielen.
Eine der berühmtesten Schülerinnen Guldas ist die argentinische Pianistin Martha Argerich.
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Pierre Fournier,Friedrich Gulda – Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (Remastered) (2006/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:18:10 minutes | 5,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
It would be difficult to rank these three complete collections of Beethoven’s works for cello and piano, recorded by Pierre Fournier with three different partners, all distinguished Beethoven experts: Arthur Schnabel (1947-48), Friedrich Gulda (1959) and Wilhelm Kempff (1965). Fournier and Gulda are like fire and water. The French cellist provides guidance to the solitary and somewhat untameable Gulda, who himself admitted to having learned some discipline over the course of the recording, and kept a debt of gratitude for Fournier his whole life. The result is a tremendous show of mutual attention and a clarity of expression, without any pomposity or pretentiousness. – François Hudry
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Friedrich Gulda – Debussy: 24 Préludes (1969/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:33 minutes | 621 MB | Genre: Akkordeon
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS Classical
The 24 Preludes represent what must be the best known cycle of pieces by the Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. The compositions are alive with magic, poetry and depiction in sound. No pianist can approach the demands of their composer more closely than Friedrich Gulda; Debussys instruction to breathe with the pedal is something that Gulda, alone among pianists, has mastered to perfection. The pianists instinctive sense of touch draws from the works of Debussy just what the composer wished: loud sections are thundered forth, while pianissimo passages sound so intimate and close at hand that ones own heartbeat sounds like the summons of an imperious drum. To do justice to this perfection, the recording is also released in full-spectrum sound quality. Gulda, rebel among pianists, was a great admirer of Debussys music. As early as the 1940s, he proved with his recordings of Lisle joyeuse and Reflets dans leau his infallible sense of the composers music. The pianist immersed himself in the depths of Debussys harmonies, taking his extended harmonic structure as the basis of improvisation in jazz. And there is an audible affinity in the harmonies of Guldas own composition The Air from other Planets. This intensive engagement with jazz on the one hand and with the works of Claude Debussy on the other fertilized Guldas creative powers to an equal extent, enriching his interpretation of the Preludes with regard to rhythm in particular and giving benchmark status to this recording.
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Friedrich Gulda – All That Jazz, Vol. 145: From Vienna to Birdland (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:16:20 minutes | 457 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Legends
Being a highly acclaimed international classical pianist for almost five decades Friedrich Gulda also cultivated a great passion for modern jazz. He even contributed as a composer to the genre and the following quote describes his universal genius: “There can be no guarantee that I will become a great jazz musician, but at least I shall know that I am doing the right thing. I don’t want to fall into the routine of the modern concert pianist’s life, nor do I want to ride the cheap triumphs of the Baroque bandwagon.”
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